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Catholic Lives, Contemporary America

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Pages: 288

Illustrations: 3 illustrations

Published: November 1997

Editor: Thomas J. Ferraro

Contributors: Thomas J. Ferraro, Robert A. Orsi, Mary Gordon, James T. Fisher, Frank Lentricchia, Paul Giles, Patrick Allitt, Andrew Sullivan, Mary Jo Weaver, Kathy Rudy, David Plante, Stanley Hauerwas, Paul Crowley

What does it mean to be—or to have been raised—Catholic in America today, now that formally nonpracticing Catholics outnumber the memberships of any other single denomination? Catholic Lives, Contemporary America is a collection of informed and spirited essays focusing on Catholic lay practices not commonly recognized or, at times, officially sanctioned. For the formidable array of scholars and writers gathered here, being Catholic is not simply a matter of going to confession or attending Mass, and Catholicism’s contributions to American cultural identity remain open to question.
Edited and with an introduction by Thomas J. Ferraro, Catholic Lives, Contemporary America offers a banquet of essays and interviews, at once subtle and accessible, treating American Catholic lives and legacies with compassion and flair.

Contributors. Patrick Allitt, Paul Crowley, Thomas J. Ferraro, James T. Fisher, Paul Giles, Mary Gordon, Stanley Hauerwas, Frank Lentricchia, Robert A. Orsi, Camille Paglia, David Plante, Richard Rodriguez, Kathy Rudy, Andrew Sullivan, Mary Jo Weaver

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Thomas J. Ferraro is Associate Professor of English at Duke University.

Table Of Contents

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Acknowledgments ix

Not-Just-Cultural Catholics / Thomas J. Ferraro 1

"Mildred, is it fun to be a cripple?": The Culture of Suffering in Mid-Twentieth-Century American Catholicism / Robert A. Orsi 19

Father Chuck: A Reading of Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's, or Why Priests Made Us Crazy / Mary Gordon 65

Clearing the Streets of the Catholic Lost Generation / James T. Fisher 76

Making It to Mepkin Abbey / Frank Lentricchia 104

The Intertextual Politics of Cultural Catholicism: Tiepolo, Madonna, Scorsese / Paul Giles 120

The Bitter Victory: Catholic Conservative Intellectuals in America, 1988–1993 / Patrick Allitt 141

Virtually Normal / Andrew Sullivan 171

Feminists and Patriarchs at the Catholic Church: Orthodoxy and Its Discontents / Mary Jo Weaver 187

The Double-Effect/Proportionalist Debate / Kathy Rudy 205

My Parents, My Religion, and My Writing / David Plante 222

A Homage to Mart and to the University Called Notre Dame / Stanley Hauerwas 227

A Pornographic Nun: An Interview with Camille Paglia / Thomas J. Ferraro 238

An Ancient Catholic: An Interview with Richard Rodriguez / Paul Crowley, S.J. 259

Contributors 267

Index 271

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Paper ISBN: 978-0-8223-2043-2 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8223-2031-9 / eISBN: 978-0-8223-9622-2 /

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