Mark Newman
Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992
Far from monolithic, white Catholics in the South split between a moderate segregationist majority and minorities of hard-line segregationists and progressive racial egalitarians. While some bishops felt no discomfort with segregation, prelates appointed from the late 1940s onward tended to be more supportive of religious and secular change. Some bishops in the peripheral South began desegregation before or in anticipation of secular change while elsewhere, especially in the Deep South, they often tied changes in the Catholic churches to secular desegregation.
African American Catholics were diverse and more active in the civil rights movement than has often been assumed. While some black Catholics challenged racism in the Church, many were conflicted about the manner of Catholic desegregation generally imposed by closing valued black institutions. Tracing its impact through the early 1990s, Newman reveals how desegregation shook congregations but seldom brought about genuine integration.
Winner of the 2020 American Studies Network Book Prize from the European Association for American Studies
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Kate Moran
The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire
Moran shows that, as the United States built its continental and global dominion and an empire of production and commerce in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Protestant and Catholic Americans began to celebrate Catholic imperial pasts. She demonstrates that American Protestants joined their Catholic compatriots in speaking with admiration about historical Catholic missionaries: the Jesuit Jacques Marquette in the Midwest, the Franciscan Junípero Serra in Southern California, and the Spanish friars in the Philippines. Comparing them favorably to the Puritans, Pilgrims, and the American Revolutionary generation, commemorators drew these missionaries into a cross-confessional pantheon of US national and imperial founding fathers. In the process, they cast Catholic missionaries as gentle and effective agents of conquest, uplift, and economic growth, arguing that they could serve as both origins and models for an American civilizing empire.
The Imperial Church connects Catholic history and the history of US empire by demonstrating that the religious dimensions of American imperial rhetoric have been as cross-confessional as the imperial nation itself.
Hosted by Carlos Ruiz Martinze and Allison Isidore
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Sophie Cooper
Forging Identities in the Irish World: Melbourne and Chicago, 1840-1922
Hosted by Allison Isidore
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The Devil is in the Details! | Discourse! February 2022
Learn more on our website: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.c…
⸻ Discussion Topics ⸻
00:00 — Introduction
01:47 — Arizona Priest Uses Wrong Word in Baptisms
11:29 — Religious Freedom and the Right to Discriminate
25:28 — Ban on Hijabs in Indian Schools
38:43 — Wrapping Up
39:49 — Credits
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The Insider/Outsider Problem: An RSP Remix
In this edition of RSP Remix, we go deep into our archives to explore the insider/outsider problem in the study of religion. We explore questions such as “What is an ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’?” and “How do scholars of religion study and engage ‘insiders’?” to begin unpacking what all is at stake in this process of group formation.
Learn more on our website: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.c…
Maggie Scull
The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-1998
During the Troubles, these priests and bishops often worked behind the scenes, acting as go-betweens for the British government and republican paramilitaries to bring about a peaceful solution. However, this study also looks more broadly at the actions of the American, Irish, and English Catholic Churches, as well as that of the Vatican, to uncover the full impact of the Church on the conflict. This critical analysis of the previously neglected state, Irish, and English Catholic Church archival material changes our perspective on the role of a religious institution in a modern conflict.
Hosted by Allison Isidore
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