The Priest and Nun in American Culture

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course explores some of the critical questions and themes in U.S. Catholic history by examining how priests and nuns have been depicted, from the nation’s founding until today, in American art (including Thomas Nast’s cartoons and Paul Henry Wood’s painting, “Absolution Under Fire”), literature (including the lurid tale of Maria Monk and the short stories of J.F. Powers), television (including The Flying Nun’s Sister Bertrille and M*A*S*H’s Father Mulcahy), and film (including On the Waterfront, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Dead Man Walking, and Doubt). Tracing the evolution of cultural portrayals of priests and nuns illuminates how Catholics in the U.S. have been both feared outsiders and exemplary citizens, and how the Church in America has navigated encounters with nativism and anti-Catholicism; evangelization and ecumenism; immigration, industrialization, and urbanization; race, ethnicity, and civil rights; politics, diplomacy, and war; gender, sexuality, and sexual abuse; assimilation, secularization, and religious reform among many other topics.