Description
Book SynopsisA hundred years ago Catholic believers young and old, rich and poor, would fill churches on holy days, drawn together in prayer and in the conviction that they, the laypeople, needed the clergy and patron saints to mediate between them and their God. This book traces dramatic changes in the practice of faith among American Catholics.
Trade ReviewOver the course of the past several decades, many Catholics have rejected the strict spiritual hierarchy that was, for centuries, the foundation of the organized church. This dramatic shift in the practice of the Catholic religion has resulted in the evolution of prayer itself into an independent-centered activity incorporated into daily routines rather than a publicly performed and formalized ritual. -- Margaret Flanagan * Booklist *
McCartin’s book provides a good overview and will appeal to readers interested in contemporary church movements and history. * Publishers Weekly *
Prayers of the Faithful is the only book that successfully tracks and explains ‘change over time’ in American Catholic self-understanding as expressed through the lens of prayer. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand the American Catholic soul in the twenty-first century. -- R. Scott Appleby, Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
McCartin offers an important new perspective on the history of prayer. For American Catholics, as for all religious people, prayers were not idle words sent off into an uncomprehending universe. For them, prayer was action, and it had real effects. They were shapers of their own spiritual destiny. -- James M. O’Toole, author of
The Faithful: A History of Catholics in AmericaIn James McCartin’s hands, the habits of prayer become a profound way to examine the shifting ecclesial and political currents of American Catholicism since the Civil War. While well aware of the transnational dimensions of his story, McCartin nonetheless offers a particularly insightful meditation on the Americanness of the spiritual life, the insistent tension between hierarchic authority and individual expression. -- Leigh E. Schmidt, author of
Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality
