The Culture of Catholicism in the United States

Even though by now one quarter of the overall population of the United States is Catholic, the complexity and diversity of American Catholicism has not received the same amount of scholarly attention devoted to the role of other, particularly Protestant, denominations. Hence, it was the aim of an international conference on "The Culture of Catholicism in the United States" that was held at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, to address the multifaceted character of American Catholicism and to encourage further interdisciplinary investigation into its historical and contemporary dimensions. Topics such as the role of Catholicism in American history; the position of the Church in a multiethnic society; the tension between Catholicism and Americanism; Catholicism in art, literature, and the media; and the history and future prospects of Catholic schools are therefore approached in the essays collected in this volume from the perspectives of various academic disciplines.