American Catholic History

1 credits · Divinity School

This course will explore the history of American Catholicism, from the colonial period to Pope Leo XIV. Students will read primary and secondary sources related to various turning points, figures, and communities in this wide-ranging history, including Spanish and French Catholic encounters with Native Americans; European Catholic immigration in the nineteenth century; the emergence of Latino and Black Catholic traditions; debates and controversies over Americanization, labor, nativism, gender, and sexual abuse; and shifts in American Catholic belief and practices (such as the fading of confession from the 1970s on). Prerequisite: CHURHST 750, 751, and AMXTIAN 756 or equivalents