This dissertation applies upper echelon theory to a nonprofit religious organization to explore how leaders' mission perspectives influence their decisions, and in turn, how those decisions affect organizational outcomes. My case is the U.S. Roman Catholic Church and how bishops' theological ideologies influence their decisions about how to respond to the priest shortage. My findings are consistent with existing strategic management literature in that multiple factors are significant in predicting decision outcomes: the organizational characteristics, the local environment, and leader characteristics. Bishops ideology had some effect, suggesting that bishops were influenced by their understanding of mission and exercised value-rational decision-making. However, the objective situation, the scope of the priest shortage, had more consistent effects. This characterizes bishops' decision-making as instrumentally rational. My findings also suggest an influence from the broader institutional environment. The prevailing ideology/culture of the Roman Catholic Church had different influences at different time periods. Additional analyses showed that the bishops' decisions affected organizational outcomes. Based on measures of membership levels and participation, there was a negative response to use of non-traditional forms of parish leadership, as indicated by reductions in the numbers of Catholics and sacramental activity.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis explores several events in the 1920 that indicated that anti-Catholicism flourished in an atmosphere of resurgent nationalism and nativism.

with Dr. Philip Jenkins, Pennsylvania State University / Devlin Hall 008

This critical edition of John Henry Newman's Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England is comprised of an Introduction, Editor's Notes and Textual Appendices. The text of the lectures themselves is appended separately bound. Section I of the Introduction draws on recent research to describe both the immediate historical context, the 1850-1 `Papal Aggression' crisis, and the wider background of anti- Catholicism in Britain. Section II gives a detailed account of the composition of the text, drawing on Newman's diaries and the extant preparatory material which is transcribed and compared with the published text in Textual Appendices 2 and 3. All the textual variants between the first and final editions are listed in full in Textual Appendix 1; the significance of these is assessed. Section III is a detailed survey of Newman as a satirist, showing the development of common themes in his satire and the relation of Present Position to both his earlier and later work. Section IV traces the central satirical strategy used in Present Position: a drama played out between the Catholic Church and a series of prejudiced opponents who are gradually disarmed. Key passages are analysed in detail. Section V analyses and evaluates contemporary reactions to the lectures from primary sources, both Catholic and Protestant. It then gives a comprehensive and detailed survey of critical responses from the death of Newman to the present day and analyses and evaluates them. The Editor's Notes give explanations of every historical, contemporary, political, literary, legendary, scriptural, ecclesiastical, theological, hagiographical or other reference in the text. Newman's primary sources are quoted, and all his quotations and references fully elucidated. Parallel passages in his other writings are identified, as are parallels from other sources. The Notes are in effect a commentary on the Lectures, shedding new light on their context and illuminating their meaning.

At present the Church is confronted by two major problems, specifically, its marginalization within Western society, and the difficulty of transmitting the faith to the young. This confusion has had a particularly severe impact on Catholics within English-speaking countries such as Australia, where a dominant secularized Protestant culture has repudiated its Catholic roots. Catholics have had limited opportunities to appreciate the depth and richness of their heritage or to understand the forms and substance of a flourishing Catholic culture. There have been two major responses to the dilemma of the Church’s interaction with modern culture. The first, which predominated before 1960, drew largely upon neo-scholastic philosophy, a major proponent of which was the prominent French Catholic intellectual, Jacques Maritain (1882-1973). However, a sole reliance on this approach has proved unsatisfactory in countries such as Australia, where the Catholic cultural and historical understandings remained underdeveloped. The second major response, which has dominated the period since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), has interpreted the term aggiornamento to mean accommodation by the Church to the modern world. This response has been particularly problematic for Catholics in Australia, which has experienced substantial social and cultural changes in the last forty years. Consequently, major declines in religious practice and the marginalization of Christian understandings and beliefs within the broader society are indicative of a need for new ways to respond to modern culture and the challenge of secularization. Since the early 1970s, Communio scholars have explored the relationship between theology and culture. Their perspectives have also led to a renewed awareness of the importance of tradition, memory and history in understanding culture. This thesis will build on this renewed awareness, to argue that the confusion about the rôle of culture has resulted from a failure to recognize the challenge posed by modernity’s breach with the Christian past, and the accompanying distortion of the historical narrative. A solution to these difficulties draws upon the historical and cultural understandings of the English Catholic historian, Christopher Dawson (1889-1970). He sought to emphasize the essential quality of the spiritual dimension in culture and history. In particular, Dawson’s understanding that religion forms culture gave him a unique insight into the importance of memory and tradition in the survival of a culture. Thus, his work addressed such themes as the rôle of Christianity in forming the West, and the need to analyse the forms and substance of a Christian culture. During the 1950s, Dawson became increasingly convinced of the importance of education in transmitting the spiritual and cultural heritage of society. He advocated the idea of a Christian culture course that would teach students about their Christian past and help them to understand that religion provides the most vital aspect of society. In particular, this thesis will propose that Dawson’s historical and educational framework is an important way to respond to the amnesia of modern culture and to transmit the faith to the next generation. Specifically, this thesis will use the Dawsonian perspective as well as the cultural analysis of the Communio school, as a means to focus on the importance of culture, history, the European heritage and education, in order to argue for new catechetical and educational directions. A focus on Europe would benefit Australia not only because it has a European heritage, but because it would allow a greater knowledge of a culture that was formed by Christianity, and of the challenge that arises from a secularization of the Christian ethos. The Dawsonian proposal for a Christian culture course provides an alternative to historical and cultural perspectives that are based on secular and Whig versions of history. Instead of focusing on the three-fold division of history into Ancient, Medieval and Modern eras, Dawson’s course developed an understanding of the impact of Christianity by developing a knowledge of six stages of Christian culture: The Apostolic Age; the Patristic Age; the Formation of Western Christendom; the High Middle Ages; Divided Christendom, after the Reformation; and finally, Secularized Christendom. Thus, the Dawsonian course with its emphasis on the formative rôle of Christian culture within Western society is an important means to address the problems of the marginalization of the Church, and the urgent need to find more effective ways to transmit the faith to the next generation.

This thesis analyses the comtesse de Ségur (1799-1874), France's best-selling children's author, both as a cultural icon and as a historical subject. Although Ségur became the best-selling author for young children in the twentieth century, and a publishing phenomenon, her work has often been overlooked by Anglophone historians. This is because she is perceived to be a part of a school of didactic authors derided as “governesses”, and who are usually characterised as bigoted spinsters, in possession of little in the way of real literary talent. The recent tendency in French academic research has therefore been to play down the comtesse de Ségur's politico-religious agenda, in order to distance her work from that of her colleagues, and to explain her enduring popularity. However, such an approach is based upon a questionable reading of such “governess” authors, and is an indication that Ségur's politics recall a part of their history that many French people would prefer to forget. In contrast, it is the contention of this thesis that the comtesse's work must be understood in the context of the religious antagonisms of Second Empire France. Ségur was closely involved with one of the most influential religious propaganda networks of the Second Empire. The informal nature of their activities meant that Ségur's gender did not prevent her from engaging in the political fray. The thesis examines the immediate production of her work in the context of the Catholic drive to propagate „good books‟, and highlights the importance which the religious revival attached to the child and to children‟s literature; it looks at the myth-making process which generated the comtesse de Ségur as a symbol of ideal Christian womanhood, and the role that this played in the politics of identity in the second half of the nineteenth century; and finally it asks what her legacy has been for feminine culture in France. In restoring the comtesse de Ségur to the intransigent Catholic movement, this thesis brings to light a neglected aspect of the Franco-French culture wars, namely the important contribution made by women authors such as Ségur to the massive surge in religious print culture in the mid-century. It questions the old stereotypes that have long surrounded Catholic women, and shows just how engaged they were in the struggle for the nation's soul that raged in post-revolutionary France.

No description available.

No description available.