Recovering American Catholic inculturation : John England's Jacksonian populism and romanticist adaptation / Lou F. McNeil.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McNeil, Lou F., 1939-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--United States--History.

Catholic Church.

United States.

History.

England, John, 1786-1842.

England, John.

Christianity and culture--United States.

Christianity and culture.

United States--Church history.

Church history.

Physical Description:

261 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington Books, [2008]

Summary:

In Recovering American Catholic Inculturation, Lou F. McNeil follows the case of Bishop John England, who chose to govern the Diocese of Charleston with a constitution that assigned rights and responsibilities to the church's membership. He argues that this was not a case of simple accommodation to Enlightenment rationality and autonomous individuality. Bishop England's adaptation of Catholicism should be understood as both a retrieval and an application of theoretical thinking to the practical judgment of specific contexts on the basis of reason and pragmatic esthetics. Social conflicts of interest are resolved through the allowance of an exercise of faith and reason within contexts wherein we understand and experience that the truth of the situation is never final and that the "good" and the "better" are not private, subjective, static, or simply progressive concepts.

Contemporary critics have often resorted more to static categories and political projections onto the earlier American experience than is warranted, as is revealed by a close study of the original texts of the founders of the American Republic or, particularly for this study, a person such as John England. The study concludes that a re-embarkation on the road of inculturation is long overdue for American Catholicism.

This book holds appeal for American historians, philosophers interested in the liberal tradition and autonomous individualism, epistemologists exploring rationality, aesthetics, and knowledge, and Catholic theologians and church historians.

Contents:

Introduction

Life, vision and response at the margins

Living and leading within a minority

A vision from the margins

Dimensions and directions in the ecclesial response

Conclusion

Appendix: The constitution of the Diocese of Charleston, 1839.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-255) and index.

ISBN:

9780739124536

0739124536

OCLC:

229021669