New Books in Catholic Studies
Episodes
Fr. Gary Selin, “Priestly Celibacy: Theological Foundations” (Catholic UP, 2016)
05 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
One of the particular markers of the Latin rite of the Catholic Church is priestly celibacy. How did this discipline develop there? Why did it develop...
Michael Brown, “The Irish Enlightenment” (Harvard UP, 2015)
13 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Traditionally histories of the Enlightenment era exclude Ireland in the belief that the movement left little impression on developments. In The Irish ...
Robert Orsi, “History and Presence” (Harvard UP, 2016)
14 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Beginning with the Catholic doctrine of the literal, embodied presence of Christ, scholar of religion Robert Orsi imagines an alternative to the futur...
Lauren Faulkner Rossi, “Wehrmacht Priests: Catholicism and the Nazi War of Annihilation” (Harvard UP, 2015)
16 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I teach at a Catholic university and last semester co-taught (with a theologian) a class titled The Holocaust and its Legacies. Once my students becam...
Charles Keith, “Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation” (U of California Press, 2012)
06 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The relationship between religion, imperialism, and national identity can be quite complex. At the same time, nationalist readings of history, particu...
Mary Ziegler, “After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate” (Harvard UP, 2016)
10 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast I talk with Mary Ziegler, Stearns Weaver Miller Professor of Law at Florida State University College of Law about her book, After Roe:...
Kathleen Holscher, “Religious Lessons: Catholic Sisters and the Captured Schools Crisis in New Mexico” (Oxford UP, 2012)
30 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In New Mexico, before World War Two, Catholic sisters in full habits routinely taught in public schools. In her fascinating new book, Religious Lesson...
Daniel K. Williams, “Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement Before Roe v. Wade” (Oxford UP, 2016)
01 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel K. Williams is an associate professor of history at the University of West Georgia. His book, Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement Be...
Deirdre de la Cruz, “Mother Figured: Marian Apparitions and the Making of a Filipino Universal” (U of Chicago Press, 2015)
02 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
There is no female religious figure so widely known and revered as the Virgin Mary. Filipino Catholics are especially drawn to Mama Mary and have a st...
Samuel Moyn, “Christian Human Rights” (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)
06 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Samuel Moyn is Professor of Law and History at Harvard University. In Christian Human Rights University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), Moyn provides a ...
Brian P. Copenhaver, “Magic in Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment” (Cambridge UP, 2015 )
15 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Belief in magic was pervasive in Greco-Roman times, persisted through the Renaissance, and then fell off the map of intellectual respectability in the...
Jenny Shaw, “Everyday Life in the Early English Caribbean: Irish, Africans, and the Construction of Difference” (U of Georgia Press, 2013)
23 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Jenny Shaw‘s recent book Everyday Life in the Early English Caribbean: Irish, Africans, and the Construction of Difference (University of Georgia Pr...
Kattie Oxx, “The Nativist Movement in America: Religious Conflict in the Nineteenth Century” (Routledge, 2013)
10 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Narratives of American history are often centered around the idea of oppression and liberation, with groups such as ethnic minorities, women, and work...
Kirsteen Kim and Sebastian C. H. Kim, “A History of Korean Christianity” (Cambridge UP, 2014)
26 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Korea presents a fascinating chapter in the history of Christianity. For instance, the first continuous Christian community in the peninsula was found...
Denis Dragovic, “Religion and Post-Conflict Statebuilding: Roman Catholic and Sunni Islamic Perspectives” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
20 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The subject of statebuilding has only become a more visible issue since the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the 1990s, the...
Andrew Kim, “An Introduction to Catholic Ethics Since Vatican II” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
22 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Dealing with moral issues in a fair and balanced way is never easy. This is especially true since many contemporary moral questions are of such a high...
Simon C. Kim, “Memory and Honor” (Liturgical Press, 2013)
05 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The intersection between ethnic and religious identities can be both complex and rich, particularly when dealing with a community that still has deep ...
Paula Kane, “Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America” (UNC Press, 2013)
31 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America (UNC Press, 2013) is a detailed journey into the life of Margaret Reilly, an American Irish-Cath...
Christopher Shannon and Christopher Blum, “The Past as Pilgrimage” (Christendom Press, 2014)
02 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Scholars studying the history of Christianity are used to writing about different Christian traditions. But what does it mean to write from within a p...
Carol E. Harrison, “Romantic Catholics: France’s Postrevolutionary Generation in Search of a Modern Faith” (Cornell UP, 2014)
23 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Since the political left and right first arose during the French Revolution, Catholics have been categorized as either conservatives or liberals, and ...
Joseph Laycock, “The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism” (Oxford UP, 2014)
19 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In understanding a tradition what is the relationship between the ‘center’ and the ‘periphery’? How do the lived religious lives of practition...
James Mace Ward, “Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia” (Cornell UP, 2013)
25 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In his biography of Jozef Tiso, Catholic priest and president of independent Slovakia (1939-1944), James Ward provides a deeper understanding of a man...
Ernest P. Young, “Ecclesiastical Colony: China’s Catholic Church and the French Religious Protectorate” (Oxford UP, 2013)
08 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In theory, Christian missionaries plan only on working in a country until an indigenous leadership can take over management of the church. Theory is o...
Ari Joskowicz, “The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France” (Stanford UP, 2014)
15 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In 1873, the German scientist Rudolf Virchow declared in Parliament that liberals were locked in a Kulturkampf, a “culture war” with the forces of...
John Cornwell, “The Dark Box: A Secret History of Confession” (Basic Books, 2014)
08 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve never been in a confessional box, but I’ve seen a lot of them in films. And if the depiction of them in films is in any way a reflection of p...
Henrietta Harrison, “The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village” (University of California Press, 2013)
10 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Henrietta Harrison‘s new book is the work of a gifted storyteller. In its pages, the reader will find Boxers getting drunk on communion wine, wolf a...
Scott Sowerby, “Making Toleration: The Repealers and the Glorious Revolution” (Harvard UP, 2013)
23 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
We all know that the “victors” generally write history. The “losers,” then, often get a bum rap. Such was the case with King James II. He’s ...
Mary Johnson, “An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service and an Authentic Life” (Spiegel & Grau, 2011)
04 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In December of 1975, Agnes Bojaxhiu, also known as Mother Teresa, appeared on the cover of TIME magazine with a caption that read: “Living Saints.”...