Catholicism and Historical Narrative

Kevin Schmiesing is a Research Fellow at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Author of two books on the history of Catholicism in the United States, he writes and speaks on Church history in a wide variety of venues, including academic journals, online magazines, and radio.

• Introduction by Kevin SchmiesingChapter 1 : Audience, Method, Subject, and Faith: Dilemmas of the Catholic HistorianPaul RadzilowskiChapter 2: The Opening of the American Mind: Puritan Scholasticism at Harvard, 1636–1700Scott McDermottChapter 3: Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, and the American Narrative Tom JodziewiczChapter 4: A Convenient Untruth: The Pro-Choice Invention of an Era of Abortion FreedomKeith CassidyChapter 5: Catholicism and Birth Control in American History: The Sanger-Ryan DebateClement MulloyChapter 6: “Where Religious Freedom Runs in the Streams”: Catholic Expansion in Newport, Rhode Island in the Antebellum EraJohn F. QuinnChapter 7: The Power of Historical Narrative: Bishop John England, American Catholicism, and the National Jubilee of 1826Adam TateChapter 8: Valiant Women of Faith and Action: Finding Catholic Sisters in the Story of Nineteenth-Century AmericaMarynita AndersonChapter 9: Popes, Catholics, and Jews: E questa la maniera di fare storia?Ernest GrecoIndexAbout the Contributors

This collection of nine essays, seven of which are mainly on American history, is preceded by a brief introduction by its editor, Kevin Schmiesing. The opening essay is a thoughtful general piece by Paul Radzilowski on 'Audience, Method, Subject, and Faith: Dilemmas of the Catholic Historian.' Radzilowski makes good use of some of Christopher Dawson’s writings and is also in dialogue with one of the most penetrating Catholic historians today, Christopher Shannon. Radzilowski has a number of citations and appreciations of this reviewer’s work, which in turn lists appropriate bibliography.