"Covers the key people, movements, institutions, practices, and doctrines of Roman Catholicism from its earliest origins."--Résumé de l'éditeur.

An introductory biography of Baraga, lengthy passages from his letters, vignettes about persons in the text and a comprehensive bibliography yield an in-depth portrait of mid-nineteenth century life, especially in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It was 1831 when Father Frederic Baraga arrived in this country from his native Slovenia. He had come to bring Christianity to the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of the Old Northwest. Twenty years later, when Baraga first heard that he might be named Bishop of Upper Michigan, he began to keep a "daybook" or diary. Intended as a private document for his own use and reference, the diary contains a log of Baraga's missionary journeys, his observations about daily weather conditions, ship movement on the lakes, and a running account of the various works he accomplished. Between the lines of the usually concise entries, however, there are clues to Baraga's zeal, dedication, and generosity. An introductory biography of Baraga, lengthy passages from his letters, vignettes about persons in the text and a comprehensive bibliography yield an in-depth portrait of mid-nineteenth century life, especially in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

"The university has been known for the excellence of its teaching . . .; its immense influence on American Catholic education and the intensity and liveliness of its intramural theological debates, reflecting the stresses of the modern world on the church. This informative history, by an emeritus professor of sociology, traces the university's development, omitting no controversy of relevance to current issues."--Washington Post Book World

A man far ahead of his time, Archbishop Edwin V. O'Hara of Kansas City (1881-1956) orchestrated numerous initiatives that profoundly affected American Catholic life.

The Roman Catholics have a long and storied history in the United States. From colonial times to the present, this group has seen its share of ups and downs, and has recently come under heated and extensive scrutiny. There is, however, a richer and more interesting history to this important denomination, and Carey details it here. Beginning with an overview of the transplanting of this faith into the New World, the author then details the extensive involvement this community has had in civil and political affairs, social and cultural milieus, and family and everyday life. Focusing on the people and events that have shaped Roman Catholicism in the United States, this broad history introduces readers to a vital American community. Beginning with a narrative history of Catholics and Catholicism in America, Carey brings the discussion through to current times, addressing the recent problems in the Church, women's roles, and responses to terrorism and war. He then goes on to include brief biographical sketches of important figures in the Church, and offers a chronology of key events. The result is one of the most comprehensive histories of Catholics in America available.

No one in France or the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century doubted that the Jesuits, loved and honored by friends, hated and feared by enemies, were a force to be reckoned with. Scholars, missionaries, educators, adventurers, social innovators - they were Renaissance men, giants. This is a biography that chronicles the life and times of just such a man, Louis-Marie Ruellan, who began his life as a romantic, pampered, bourgeois Breton who ended up a selfless servant of God. Ruellan had entered the Jesuits in 1870, just in time to serve with them in the Franco-Prussian War. After the war, he was exiled with them to England in 1880, and finally came to the United States in 1883 to work among the Salish Indians of the Pacific Northwest. Among other things, Ruellan ended up as a founder of Gonzaga University. Through Ruellan's extensive correspondence, much of which is contained in the book, the author introduces the reader to miners lured to the Northwest by gold, as well as to the Indians, homesteaders, railroad laborers, farmers, and the men and women who gave the American frontier such a magical aura.

The United States has a long history of religious pluralism, and yet Americans have often thought that people’s faith determines their eternal destinies. The result is that Americans switch religions more often than any other nation. The Chance of Salvation traces the history of the distinctively American idea that religion is a matter of individual choice. Lincoln Mullen shows how the willingness of Americans to change faiths, recorded in narratives that describe a wide variety of conversion experiences, created a shared assumption that religious identity is a decision. In the nineteenth century, as Americans confronted a growing array of religious options, pressures to convert altered the basis of American religion. Evangelical Protestants emphasized conversion as a personal choice, while Protestant missionaries brought Christianity to Native American nations such as the Cherokee, who adopted Christianity on their own terms. Enslaved and freed African Americans similarly created a distinctive form of Christian conversion based on ideas of divine justice and redemption. Mormons proselytized for a new tradition that stressed individual free will. American Jews largely resisted evangelism while at the same time winning converts to Judaism. Converts to Catholicism chose to opt out of the system of religious choice by turning to the authority of the Church. By the early twentieth century, religion in the United States was a system of competing options that created an obligation for more and more Americans to choose their own faith. Religion had changed from a family inheritance to a consciously adopted identity.

Issues for Feb. 1957-July 1959 include a Checklist of the Vatican manuscript codices available for consultation at the Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library at St. Louis University, pts. 1-8.