The Catholic Imagination [Hardcover]

Andrew Greeley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2000

Catholics live in an enchanted world: a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles, saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures. But these Catholic paraphernalia are merely hints of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility that inclines Catholics to see the Holy lurking in creation. The world of the Catholic is haunted by a sense that the objects, events, and persons of daily life are revelations of Grace. In this fascinating discussion of what is unique about the Catholic worldview and culture and what distinguishes it from Protestantism, Andrew Greeley--one of the most popular and prolific authors writing today--examines the religious imagination that shapes Catholics' lives.
In a lively and engaging narrative, Greeley discusses the central themes of Catholic culture: Sacrament, Salvation, Community, Festival, Structure, Erotic Desire, and the Mother Love of God. Ranging widely from Bernini to Scorsese, Greeley distills these themes from the high arts of Catholic culture and asks: Do these values really influence people's lives? Using international survey data, he shows the counterintuitive ways in which Catholics are defined. He goes on to root these behaviors in the Catholic imagination.
As he identifies and explores the fertile terrain of Catholic culture, Greeley illustrates the enduring power of particular stories, images, and orientations in shaping Catholics' lived experience. He challenges a host of assumptions about who Catholics are and makes a strong case for the vitality of the culture today. The Catholic imagination is sustained and passed on in relationships, the home, and the community, Greeley shows. Absorbing, compassionate, and deeply informed, this book provides an entirely new perspective on the nature and role of religion in daily life for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Catholic Imagination is Andrew Greeley's attempt to summarize what is unique about Catholic culture. "Catholics live in an enchanted world, a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles, saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures," Greeley writes. "But these Catholic paraphernalia are mere hints of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility which inclines Catholics to see the Holy lurking in creation." In seven chapters, The Catholic Imagination considers some of the central themes of Catholic culture--sacrament, salvation, community, festival, hierarchy, erotic desire, and the mother love of God--particularly as they have been treated by Catholic artists. The book's theological and aesthetic observations gain force from its sociological insights. (Greeley teaches Sociology at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona.). Read the chapter on "Sacred Desire" first. There's good stuff here on Bernini (later in the book he moves on to Scorsese, Mozart, and others); but even more fascinating is Greeley's empirical evidence that "Catholics have sex more often, they are more playful in their sexual encounters, and they enjoy sex more [than other Americans]."

From Publishers Weekly

Readers familiar with Greeley's previous nonfiction works will find this extended essay a variation on a familiar theme. Greeley--a Catholic priest, sociologist and novelist who teaches at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona--posits that Catholicism creates an imaginative worldview that finds grace "lurking everywhere," from the city streets to the landscape to the bedroom. It is a worldview that pervades Greeley's many novels. Here, Greeley draws on art, literature, music and films produced by Catholics, ranging from the Baroque sculptures of Bernini to the contemporary fiction of James T. Farrell. He also draws on his own research to illustrate what he calls an "enchanted imagination," a sensibility Greeley attributes to Catholicism's emphasis on God's immanence, as opposed to Protestantism's focus on God's transcendence. This book's principles reiterate Greeley's previous books and articles on Catholic myth and imagination, including several that seem less hurriedly composed. Protestants may be put off by some of his comparisons (for example, "Catholics are more interested in the fine arts than Protestants" and "Catholics tend to picture society as supportive and not oppressive, while Protestants tend to picture society as oppressive and not supportive"). Imperfections aside, Greeley devotees may enjoy following him over this terrain again, possibly collecting references to artistic works for follow-up.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520220854
• ISBN-13: 978-0520220850
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,252,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the how, but the WHY of Catholicism..., November 20, 2000

By 

Jennifer M. Macleod "yiddishe supermama" (Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Catholic Imagination (Hardcover)

There's a huge number of catechisms and books out there that will tell you how to "do Catholic," but very few that capture the essence of what *being* Catholic means quite as well as this work of Greeley's does.

As a non-Catholic -- and very satisfied with the depth of my own religious experience -- I will probably never experience some of the phenomena Greeley describes. But it's fascinating to plumb the depths and be given this intimate peek into how Catholicism actually FEELS to Catholics.

I admit, I found his thesis controversial at first: that Catholics have a different way of looking at the world. But without getting bogged down in specifics, he manages to define many of those distinctions from his own wealth of experience.

It's easy to put down another religion if you just look at the surface details. Greeley leads all readers -- regardless of their own religious convictions -- to respect and admire his fellow believers for the uniquely Catholic outlook on and contribution to the world.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Read, July 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Catholic Imagination (Hardcover)

For most of the past ten years Andrew Greeley has been slowly developing his conclusions on "Catholic Imagination." This latest effort is indeed his best. The book never really defines "Catholic Imagination," choosing instead to describe it over and over in various ways -- an effective technique. Seven chapters go through various aspects of life -- place, time, desire, community, authority, etc -- and explain that there is a distinctive and particularly Catholic way of understanding and living those realities. His unique style is to spend the first half of each chapter explaining his point, and the last half citing sociological data confirming his conclusions. The book would be good for Catholics seeking self-understanding and non-Catholics trying to get a grasp of why Catholics are sometimes so different from Protestants. Greeley is a good author so it is an easy book to read. The introduction is an absolute necessity and the first chapter is the most difficult to understand. It would be easy to give up on the book about page 33 or so, but that would be a mistake. It is well printed, good type face, wide margins, but only minimally adequate pictures.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A provocative, well-argued and readable essay, August 5, 2003

By 

Jeffrey Jotz "You'll know him when you find him" (Rahway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Catholic Imagination (Hardcover)

I've long heard about U. of Chicago sociologist Andrew Greeley but never had the opportunity to read any of his works. The Catholic Imagination was a very approchable work for the general reader that looks at the Catholic Church's roots in both the divine and the flesh (as opposed to the condemnation of the flesh and worldly things by Reformation Protestants).

Greeley bends over backwards not to trumpet the superiority of Catholicism over other denominations or faiths. He attempts to take the reader on a tour of Catholic iconography and community and explain to Catholics and non-Catholics alike why Catholics are more attached to art, music, architecture, community (over individuality), sexuality and salvation in an imperfect world than other Christian congregations.

He also argues quite eloquently that much of the above aspects of Catholicism are rooted in folk history and the Church's roots in a illiterate, pre-Enlightenment Europe where local traditions held greater sway than detached theological mandates from a distant Rome. Greeley even touches on this conflict in today's Church, believing that improved communication technologies have resulted in friction between Rome and "ordinary" Catholics as the Holy See has attempted to tighten its control over local clergy and laity.

Again, Greeley aims for the general reader as his audience, not the learned theologian. That is the target of his book and the ingredients in much of his arguments in The Catholic Imagination.

This book would be better served by some more color photos of the artwork Greeley mentions in his book, as I found myself unfamiliar with many of the works of art, films and music listed in the essay.