Description
Book SynopsisExploring what is unique about the Catholic worldview and culture and what distinguishes it from Protestantism, this text examines the religious imagination that shapes Catholic life. In doing so, it challenges assumptions and makes a case for the vitality of contemporary Catholic culture.
Trade Review"The Catholic Imagination is vintage Greeley, at his most thought-provoking, insightful, charming, and readable. As a skilled novelist, he leads his reader through personal anecdotes and lively descriptions of the works of art to a series of interpretations that point to an identifiably Catholic way of looking at the world. As a trained sociologist, he turns these observations into hypotheses and tests them against the statistical data that he and others have gathered from examining the attitudes of ordinary, everyday Catholics. Greeley finds a remarkable consistency between sensibilities revealed in works of high art, popular art, and the lived experience of Catholics that he calls appropriately the Catholic imagination." - Richard A. Blake, S.J., Theological Studies "Greeley has written a lively, controversial, and stimulating book in which he describes a Catholic imagination which is different from (not better or worse than) a Protestant imagination. Going beyond his own position, I believe Protestants have much to learn not just about the Catholic imagination but from it as he describes it." - Robert Bellah, coauthor of Habits of the Heart "A perceptive examination of the prominent role played by ritual, imagination, and spirituality in the everyday lives of both practicing and nonpracticing Catholics." - Margaret Flanagan, Booklist "Greeley draws on art, literature, music and films produced by Catholics, ranging from the Baroque sculptures of Bernini to the contemporary fiction of James T. Farrell." - Publishers Weekly
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION
The Sacraments of Sensibility
CHAPTER ONE
Sacred Place, Sacred Time
CHAPTER TWO
Sacred Desire
CHAPTER THREE
The Mother Love of God
CHAPTER FOUR
Community
CHAPTER FIVE
Hierarchy
CHAPTER SIX
Salvation
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sensibility and Socialization
CONCLUSION
The Enchanted Imagination
A Note on Sources
Notes
Index
