John Carroll, American Catholics, and the Making of a Christian Nation
Religious affiliation was an important component to American citizenship during the early republic. One of the most contested claims regarding religious identity has been the degree to which Americans saw their country as a Christian nation. To address that question most scholars have focused on how...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Catholic Historical Society
[2015]
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| In: |
American catholic studies
Year: 2015, Volume: 126, Issue: 2, Pages: 47-68 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CH Christianity and Society KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBQ North America KDB Roman Catholic Church KDD Protestant Church |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Religious affiliation was an important component to American citizenship during the early republic. One of the most contested claims regarding religious identity has been the degree to which Americans saw their country as a Christian nation. To address that question most scholars have focused on how Protestants such as Isaac Backus or rationalists like Thomas Jefferson understood America's religious identity. Using Catholics as a case study to examine that dynamic illuminates how complex that identity could be. Catholics did not fit neatly into any of the prescribed religious categories that underlay notions of citizenship. Consequently, Catholics found themselves on different sides of debates over the place of religion in America. In some instances, they helped reinforce links between religion and citizenship by circumscribing the nation's religious identity in a way that excluded non-Christians, but included themselves. Elsewhere, they rejected the claims of those who sought to link American values to a Protestant ethos. In those cases, Catholics insisted that religious affiliation had no bearing on citizenship. Catholics therefore helped democratize conceptions of American identity even while limiting citizenship to those within the Christian tradition. In the process, they lent credence to the idea that America was a Christian nation. |
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| ISSN: | 2161-8534 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/acs.2015.0021 |