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To an outside observer, the religious culture of the United States might seem astonishing. For German sociologist Michael Zöller, American Catholicism is more than that; it is a contradiction in terms.
With its historical consciousness, emphasis on institutionalized structures, and combination of skepticism and assurance of grace, Catholicism seems to embody the very opposite of the American cultural principle. Zöller here reexamines widely held notions about secularization and the role of religion in civil society to show how Catholicism was integrated into the Protestant, egalitarian, and populist American culture and to determine what distinguishes American Catholics from both European Catholics and other Americans.
Zöller traces the progress of Catholicism in the New World from earliest European settlement through the "Great Crisis" of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to its acceptance in the mainstream of modern America. He tells how, despite the anti-Catholic sentiments of the founding fathers and Americans' deep suspicion of institutions, the Church has fared better in this religiously neutral republic than in the so-called Catholic countries where it was both privileged and persecuted. Because American Catholicism was preoccupied for so long with having to justify itself in both Rome and Washington while fighting internally for a proper balance between these loyalties, it acquired abilities that had never been necessary in the countries where it first flourished.
“Writing in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville, Michael Zoller provides a distinctive outsider’s perspective on the American Catholic and religious experience. Readers will find Professor Zoller’s social history, covering the years from 1492 through 1993, extremely valuable for three reasons. First, he provides a vast amount of useful information and data derived from a judicious mix of qualitative and quantitative sources. Second, he generates many intriguing insights about the myriad events, processes, and individuals studied. Finally, Professor Zoller provides an important and comprehensive theoretical interpretation of the American Catholic experience that deserves a respectful hearing and much reflection and discussion.” —The Catholic Social Science Review
“...Zoller brings a keen eye to social forces and dynamics that condition the changing identity of American Catholicism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readers will find particularly insightful and enlightening the social analysis he brings... to the book.” —Catholic Southwest
“...the work is recommended for advanced college students, advanced seminarians, and scholars. It was not an easy read, but it offers a distinct and different viewpoint.” —Catholic Library World
“[Zöeller] brings the analytical strengths of social science to his ambituous but readable one-volume social history of American Roman Catholicism that stretches from Columbus to the mid-1990s.” —Theological Studies
“Zöeller opens a comprehensive new chapter in American Catholic studies. The ‘cultural improbability: American Catholicism’ intrigues the European social scientist. This outside observer makes productive use of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to examine the impact of individualism on American religious culture and the perserverance of Catholicism, whether it is a theological system, a cultural principle, or a vital community of faith.” —Religious Studies Review
“It is a blessing to receive this book just now. Michael Zöller knows America well, and looks at American Catholicism with fresh eyes. He is especially good on the dramatic changes in the structures of the American church during the 30 years following 1963. His unique angle of vision brings out many helpful distinctions that no insider would have noticed.” —Michael Novak, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Michael Zöller is Chair of Political Sociology and Director of the Center of American Studies at Bayreuth University.
Steven Rendall has translated more than fifty books from French and German, two of which have won major translation prizes. He is professor emeritus of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon and editor emeritus of Comparative Literature. He currently lives in France.
Albert K. Wimmer is emeritus faculty in the Department of German and Russian Languages and Literatures at the University of Notre Dame.