Special Issue "Recent Work on Catholicism"

Guest Editor
Dr. Steven M. Avella
Department of History, Coughlin Hall, 301, Marquette University, PO Box 1881, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
E-Mail: steven.avella@marquette.edu
Phone: +1 414 288 3556
Interests: US Catholicism; Catholicism in the American West; 20th Century US

Dear Colleagues,

Catholicism is one of the major religious systems of the world. Claiming more than a billion adherents, it has a visible presence on every part of the globe. In recent years interest in religious history has surged among professional historians. The religious experiences of human kind have become a portal to a fuller understanding of individuals, societies, and nations. Catholicism's historic contributions to global culture and its impact on the values and behavior of men and women (not to mention the built environment and material culture) of the past two millenia is the subject of this gathering of historical work. The cross fertilization of Catholic history with the social sciences, the history of theology and the "cultural turn" in recent historiography has produced a vibrant and stimulating burst of new scholarship.

Dr. Steven M. Avella
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• Roman Catholicism
• Catholic church
• globalization
• hierarchy
• Vatican
• Pope John Paul II
• Pope Benedict XVI
• missionaries
• Vatican II
• liberation theology
• media

Title: Catholic Mothers and Daughters: Conversations
Author: Anne Keary
Affiliation: Faculty of Education, Monash University, Victoria, Australia; E-Mail: anne.keary@monash.edu
Abstract: In this paper conversations between a group of white middle class Australian mothers and daughters are examined to disclose the symbolic dimensions that mark girlhood, womanhood, motherhood and the mother-daughter dyad within Catholic discourse. In their conversations women unravel and produce understandings of themselves as 'Catholic' women, and as mothers and daughters that operate at both a symbolic and real material level. The women in their dialogue depict a visceral physical account of Catholic feminine desire, guilt, pleasure, piety and anger. They offer insights into the curious patriarchal religious rituals, logic and superstition that shaped their Catholic upbringings and that still permeates their adult lives. For it becomes evident they are still affected by, and living out, the intensity of this religious force. By constructing traces of the Catholic mother-daughter nexus which relates back to women’s conversations, the intention is not to construct a closed off space but, rather, to construct a place in which women actively talk, listen and read and by so doing come to a better understanding of their own social genderered embodied selves.

Title: Towards a New Reading of the Political Thought of the Dévot Party: The Opposition to Cardinal Richelieu’s Ministériat
Author: Dr. Caroline Maillet-Rao
Affiliation: University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada; E-Mail: mailletr@ualberta.ca
Abstract: For a long time, the political thought of the dévot party, led by Mathieu de Morgues and Michel de Marillac, has been considered by the official historiography to be supportive of a traditional monarchy, Catholicism, and the extermination of Protestants, while being opposed to the Thirty Years War.  This faction’s political thought was in contrast to that of Cardinal Richelieu, which was comparatively regarded as profoundly absolutist and modern.  Such an understanding of the devots’ political thought, albeit disputed, continues to prevail.  The present article intends to demonstrate that the dévots were in fact on the side of the absolutists, which explains why they were opposed to Richelieu.  Indeed, they never criticized absolutism but rather the illegitimate leadership of the government by an all-powerful premier ministre, namely Richelieu.  According to the dévots, the ministériat actually betrayed the very essence of absolute monarchy.   Before unveiling a new perspective on its political thought, it is important to reflect upon the definition of the dévot party. This will be followed by an overview of the lives and the work of those who were the representatives of this faction, Mathieu de Morgues (1582-1670) and Michel de Marillac (1563-1632). An examination of the historiography on this subject enables this article’s conclusions to be situated in a broader context.