Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America. / At head of title: The Catholic university of America. Appendix: p. 183-186; Bibliography: p. 187-192.

This dissertation explores the racial and religious history of black Catholics in the United States through a focus on the critical intersection of the Civil Rights Movement and the Second Vatican Council as it was experienced at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, uniquely situated in the heart of Atlanta, a city that was a cradle for the Civil Rights Movement and the home of influential churches like Ebenezer Baptist. Tracing the early history of the parish, I outline the role of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (SBS) in establishing the Our Lady of Lourdes School and Parish. The SBS were a missionary women’s religious order that was founded by St. Katherine Drexel in 1891 with the charism to evangelize “the Indian and the colored” through the Catholic education. The willingness of Atlanta’s black Protestants to support the work of the SBS attached to Our Lady of Lourdes, despite their general misgivings towards what they perceived to be a “white church,” is a testament to the order’s unusually progressive commitment to interracial action. During its existence from 1912 to 2001, the Our Lady of Lourdes School was regarded as a cost-effective alternative to segregated public schools for blacks regardless of religious affiliation. Like many Catholic schools in minority areas Our Lady of Lourdes faced many challenges during its existence, including persistent financial problems, the withdrawal of the SBS in 1974, and the proliferation of new educational opportunities for blacks after desegregation. The ability of the Our Lady of Lourdes community to keep the school operational until 2001 illustrates the importance of inner city Catholic schools to minority populations. The convergence of the Civil Rights Movement and Vatican II in the 1960s affected how the parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes defined themselves as blacks and Catholics within a segregated society. School desegregation and white flight fundamentally changed the place of the parish in the urban Catholic landscape. Nevertheless, these religious and racial reevaluations enabled the Our Lady of Lourdes community to revitalize itself through liturgical inculturation and the embrace of its heritage as an Auburn Avenue religious institution. / 2027-07-31T00:00:00Z

The Catholic community of post-Settlement England relied upon devotional literature to sustain the faith of individuals who were generally deprived of the sacraments and contact with Catholic clergy. Increasingly, these books were used not only to promote Catholic spirituality, but to encourage greater fidelity and loyalty to the Catholic church. The genre is represented by texts which vary greatly and which accommodated a wide and disparate audience with different devotional requirements and even with varying degrees of attachment to the Catholic faith. The period was one of tremendous religious literary activity on the Continent and those who were involved in the production and distribution of Catholic literature drew heavily upon the spiritual books which were issuing in such great numbers from the commercial presses in France and the Netherlands. Translating the devotional works of the spiritual masters of the day proved to be a tremendously effective way of providing English readers with books of orthodox devotion, while at the same time drawing the isolated community into the wider world of Catholic renewal. Providing Catholic devotional texts to a persecuted audience under tremendous pressure to conform very often drew that audience into the fray of controversy and the quarrel of religious disputation. The line between devotion and controversy was thin and often crossed, and devotional books were frequently used as a method of promoting not only Catholic spirituality, but Catholic loyalty as well. Thus, these books, like other devotional artefacts, were considered dangerous to the religious - and political - stability of England. In the contemporary situation these devotional books were clearly regarded as effective tools for maintaining Catholicism in England, both by those who produced them and by those who sought to destroy them. The study of these books can help us to appreciate that important role and the place of devotional literature in the wider context of confessional conflict.

This study explores the Jewish experience within the American military. Information sources include a review of literature, interviews with nineteen Jewish service members, and data files of officers and enlisted personnel who were on active duty as of October 2005. Data files were provided by the Defense Manpower Data Center in Monterey, California. The history of military service by persons of the Jewish faith corresponds roughly to that of persons from many other ethnic or religious groups: military service has been a patriotic calling, especially in periods of war, as well as a path during earlier times toward full assimilation into American society. This study concludes that Jewish military personnel, overall, have consistently performed well in service, given current measures of success; and, this trend is likely to continue. Further research should seek to examine additional measures of success in the military for Jewish personnel. More generally, research should examine the possible relationship between military performance and a person's religious faith, since religion is such an important part of individual identity. This information would add to existing knowledge of the various background and demographic factors of military members that help to shape a diverse and highly effective force.

Thesis advisor: Peter Weiler / This dissertation explores the social, cultural, and political effects of the “Great Church Crisis,” a conflict between the Protestant and Anglo-Catholic (or Ritualist) parties within the Church of England occurring between 1898 and 1906. Through a series of case studies, including an examination of the role of religious controversy in fin-de-siècle Parliamentary politics, it shows that religious belief and practice were more important in turn-of-the-century Britain than has been appreciated. The argument that the onset of secularization in Britain as defined by both a decline in religious attendance and personal belief can be pushed back until at least the 1920s or 1930s is not new. Yet, the insight that religious belief and practice remained a constituent part of late-Victorian and Edwardian national identity and public life has thus far failed to penetrate political, social, and cultural histories of the period. This dissertation uses the Great Church Crisis to explore the interaction between religious belief and political and social behavior, not with the intent of reducing religion to an expression of political and social stimuli, but with the goal of illuminating the ways politics, culture, and social thought functioned as bearers of religious concerns. The intense anti-Catholicism unleashed by the Church Crisis triggered debate about British national identity, Erastianism, and the nature of the church-state relationship. Since the Reformation, Erastians – supporters of full state control of the church – and proponents of a more independent church had argued over how to define the proper relationship between the national church and state. This dissertation demonstrates that the Church Crisis represents a crucial period in the history of church-state relations because the eventual Anglo-Catholic victory ended Parliamentary attempts to control the church’s theology and practice and, therefore, sounded the death knell of political Erastianism. In short, tensions between Protestant and Catholics reached a high water mark during the years of the Great Church Crisis. These tensions catalyzed both a temporary revival of Erastianism and its ultimate descent into irrelevance. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Thesis advisor: James M. O'Toole / In the 1960s and 1970s American Catholics invoked conscience inordinately. They claimed to possess “sacred rights of conscience.” Catholics produced a thick psychological literature on the “formation of conscience.” They also made clear that conscience could never be handed over to an authority figure, whether in the church or state. The term conscience then became a keyword in the rights discourse of late twentieth century America. This dissertation seeks to explain why Catholics invoked conscience so frequently in the 1960s and 1970s, and it aims to chart how conscience became important to the rights vernacular of the late twentieth century. Catholics invoked conscience frequently in an effort to remain in and expand tradition. The theology of conscience had roots in the thirteenth century work of Thomas Aquinas -- a tradition American Catholics studied in the 1940s and 1950s. This study also shows how the human rights advocates of Amnesty International and a community of mainline Protestants appropriated the Catholic theology of conscience and used it for their own purposes. The 1960s and 1970s, rather than witnessing the end of tradition, facilitated its growth.

Este trabalho pretende analisar a obra de Martin Del Rio, Comentarios de las alteraciones de los Estados de Flandes: sucedidas despues de la llegada del Señor Don Iuan de Austria a ellos, hasta su muerte, originalmente escrita em latim. Para fundamentação teórica, é apresentado o contexto da Bélgica no século XVI, e como este foi importante para a escrita do autor. Também são abordadas as questões da guerra, do mal e da heresia como elementos que constituem a base do pensamento de Martin Del Rio. São levados em consideração a escrita da história e os hábitos de leitura de seus contemporâneos. / This study aims to examine Martin Del Rio`s book, Comentarios de las alteraciones de los Estados de Flandes: sucedidas despues de la llegada del Señor Don Iuan de Austria a ellos, hasta su muerte, originally written in Latin. For theoretical reasons, this study presents the context of Belgium in the sixteenth century, and how it was important for the author`s writings. Also, the issues of the war, the evil and the heresy are considered as elements that form the basics of his thoughts. History books and the reading habits of his contemporaries are other subjects of this analysis.

Project (D. Min.)--Iliff School of Theology, 2009. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-136).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-131).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [54]-55).