The Spirit of Vatican II: A History of Catholic Reform in America

by Colleen McDannell

Overview

In 1962 a group of Catholic leaders traveled to Rome, charged by Pope John XXIII with the task of making the gospel of Christ relevant in a modern world. The Second Vatican Council transformed the lives of Catholics through sweeping reforms -- yet its effect on the daily lives of practicing Catholics has never been fully understood.

In this illuminating study, religious historian Colleen McDannell presents new insight into Vatican II by shifting the framework of its analysis: from men to women, from urban to suburban, from theory to practice. Using the story of her Catholic mother's life as a narrative thread, McDannell presents in The Spirit of Vatican II a refreshingly positive portrayal of the state of modern Catholicism -- and a testament to the lasting effects of its liberalization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465023387
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	03/01/2011
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	449 KB
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Colleen McDannell is a Professor of History and Sterling M. McMurring Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Utah. Her books include Heaven: A History and Picturing Faith: Photography and the Great Depression. She lives in Salt Lake City.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 Catholic Neighborhoods 1

Chapter 2 Postwar Suburbs 29

Chapter 3 Gathering in Los Angeles and Rome 55

Chapter 4 The Council and Its Decisions 73

Chapter 5 Uneven Acceptance 119

Chapter 6 Design for Change 151

Chapter 7 A Deciding People 177

Chapter 8 Legacies 207

Acknowledgments 233

Notes 237

Bibliographical Essay 247

Index 269

Editorial Reviews

Peter Steinfels, Co-director of the Fordham University Center on Religion and Culture and author of A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America
“Colleen McDannell offers readers a wonderful blend of macro-history and micro-history.   Her remarkably comprehensive and completely accessible account of the Second Vatican Council and the changes it wrought in American Catholic life takes an original tack in weaving these changes around the experiences of Catholic women and of several generations of her own family.”

Chester Gillis, Professor of Theology at Georgetown University and author of Roman Catholicism in America
“Written in an inviting and accessible style, McDannell's work captures the important movements in the church and American society that preceded (and prepared the way for) Vatican II, the details of the Council, and its unique effects on various parishes. The book underscores the contributions of women whose roles may not have been as public as those of male clerics but which were influential at the local level. Catholics who lived this era will recognize the history and younger generations will learn the nuances of the history that has shaped contemporary religious experience.”

Leigh E. Schmidt, Charles Warren Professor of American Religious History at Harvard University
“Part social history, part family memoir, Colleen McDannell's The Spirit of Vatican II beautifully evokes the dramatic transformation of Catholicism in the middle decades of the twentieth century. The way she entwines her stories of family and church is a breath of fresh air all its own.”

Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame
“Colleen McDannell has done a superb job interweaving the high level unfolding of the Second Vatican Council and the ground level effects of Vatican II on her parents' own Catholic experience. The book is an outstanding example of analysis joined with empathy, the Big Picture balanced by the intimate portrait, the detached observation meeting the involved participant. With prose of unusual clarity McDannell breathes unusual life into what has been far and away the most important event of recent Catholic history.”

Robert Orsi, Professor of Religious Studies and History and G. Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University and author of Thank You, Saint Jude: Women's Devotions to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes
“A vividly described and richly detailed history of American Catholic lives in the thrilling, challenging era of ‘Vatican II.' In a way that only she can do, Colleen McDannell's story ranges from a gripping account of the unfolding work of the Council fathers to how a young wife and mother—her own mother, whose life is the heart of this book—experienced the times. McDannell brings readers very close to what these times felt like to Catholics, especially Catholic women, in their changing church and in the changed world around them, and she makes clear women's central role in enacting the spirit of the Council in their parishes and schools. Colleen McDannell is a great historian and The Spirit of Vatican II is a masterwork.

From the Publisher

A number of books have been written about the various effects of Vatican II on American Catholicism, e.g., Mark S. Massa's The American Catholic Revolution, which focuses on big topics and well-known figures. What sets McDannell's (history & religious studies, Univ. of Utah; Heaven: A History) book apart is her use of her own family history to illustrate the effect of the changes. McDannell specifically focuses on her mother, who, with her family, moved several times as her husband took different jobs, thus experiencing the changes wrought by Vatican II as played out in a number of different parishes, some embracing the changes, some changing only reluctantly. Emphasizing the success of Vatican II, McDannell has a feel for the telling facts and incidents that give life to the story of the genuine upheaval in the church from the perspective from the pew. VERDICT A well-written history of the effects of Vatican II in America both generally and on a particular, representative family, which puts a real face on what could have been an abstract discussion.—Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ

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