Postsecular Catholicism

Amid increased secularization, there is new appreciation for the relevance of moderate religion, such as Catholicism, in redirecting the ethical commitments of contemporary society. The postsecular affirmation of the mutual significance of religious and secular resources provides the Church with a renewed opportunity for engagement with public societal issues and for institutional revitalization among Catholics. It requires, however, a dialogue between doctrinal ideas and the increasingly secularized experiences and expectations of Catholics, as well as others. This book examines how the Church negotiates this task. Anchored in the context of American Catholicism, it aims to help the reader understand why Catholicism continues to have relevance, notwithstanding its multiple tensions. Critical here is recognition of the fact that the Church is not a monolithic entity but, instead, is characterized by, and allows, a dynamic interpretive diversity among laity, bishops, and the Vatican. The book presents case analyses and survey data showing how the crosscutting pull of religious and secular currents plays out across a number of contentious societal and intra-Church issues. Among the topics examined are economic inequality, climate change, gay sexuality, divorce and remarriage, women’s ordination, and religious freedom. This inquiry demonstrates the strategies and processes by which tradition and change, authority and autonomy, and doctrinal ideas and secular realities are held together in Catholicism.