The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council [Hardcover]

Andrew Greeley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2004

How, a mere generation after Vatican Council II initiated the biggest reform since the Reformation, can the Catholic Church be in such deep trouble? The question resonates through this new book by Andrew Greeley, the most recognized, respected, and influential commentator on American Catholic life. A timely and much-needed review of forty years of Church history, The Catholic Revolution offers a genuinely new interpretation of the complex and radical shift in American Catholic attitudes since the second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
Drawing on a wealth of data collected over the last thirty years, Greeley points to a rift between the higher and lower orders in the Church that began in the wake of Vatican Council II--when bishops, euphoric in their (temporary) freedom from the obstructions of the Roman Curia, introduced modest changes that nonetheless proved too much for still-rigid structures of Catholicism: the "new wine" burst the "old wineskins." As the Church leadership tried to reimpose the old order, clergy and the laity, newly persuaded that "unchangeable" Catholicism could in fact change, began to make their own reforms, sweeping away the old "rules" that no longer made sense. The revolution that Greeley describes brought about changes that continue to reverberate--in a chasm between leadership and laity, and in a whole generation of Catholics who have become Catholic on their own terms.
Coming at a time of crisis and doubt for the Catholic Church, this richly detailed, deeply thoughtful analysis brings light and clarity to the years of turmoil that have shaken the foundations, if not the faith, of American Catholics.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Greeley may be better known as a novelist than a sociologist, but in this latest book he is in full professional stride, offering studied observations on his Church in the years since the landmark Second Vatican Council (196265). As the title suggests, Greeley proposes that a revolution has occurred since the heady days of Vatican II. In fact, he likens the actions that made change possible to the storming of the Bastille. Vatican II's reforms were modest, Greeley believes, yet were "too much for the rigid structures of 19th-century Catholicism to absorb." In short, he says, the new wine burst the old wineskins. He attributes this to the Church's failure to adjust its rhetoric and style to educated contemporary Catholics who no longer blindly obey the directives of Church authorities. Thus, he writes, Church leadership is now in conflict with lower clergy and laity, who have redefined Catholicism on their own terms, holding onto core doctrines and traditions even as they disagree with the rules in such areas as sexual behavior. Greeley does not necessarily endorse these unofficial reforms, but he does applaud the laity for their faith and calls on Church leaders to recognize and respect them. He has especially harsh words for authoritarian liturgists who have imposed their vision of worship on congregations starving for a real connection between faith and daily life. Catholics who want to know what happened after Vatican II will find this compelling reading.
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From Booklist

Greeley here intends to "reprise and refocus" his four decades of research on American Catholics. He cautions against overusing revolution as a metaphor for change and reluctantly applies it to post-Vatican II Catholicism, then develops it in an extended analogy between Vatican II and the French Revolution. He argues that "sacramentals" and good stories, in particular, hold the church together, and that "beauty will save the world." He is unable to resist personal attacks on those he characterizes as feminist ideologues, however, and he displays shocking chauvinism in claiming Catholic ownership of stories that predate Catholicism, venturing that Catholicism has the "richest repertory of images and metaphors" of all world religions, and asserting that "Catholic" stories are "more beautiful." "Jesus was the most charming man who ever lived," he avers, and that seems strangely appropriate coming from a man of enduring charm, part of which depends on reliably getting a rise out of an impressive range of readers. True to form, he gives us another book that should generate important discussion. Steven Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1st edition (March 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520238176
• ISBN-13: 978-0520238176
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,366,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Why Catholics stay in the church, May 29, 2005

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Catherine Michael "catherinemichael" (Sacramento CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council (Hardcover)

Pretty much boils down to the idea that (American) Catholics who stay "in" the church, do so "because they like being Catholic".

Which apparently means they like the familiar "American Catholic" culture or ethnicity (ethnicities: Irish, German, Polish) that they were born and raised in: the rituals, color, music, customs ("May crownings"). The vernacular language change they accept as good, the Vatican, medieval ethics and theology they ignore (and have been for decades.) Greeley himself comes from ethnic/cultural Catholicism with good music and colorful liturgies and customs, so he's got a good "born Catholic" culture to like.

But there's little here in this compendium/rehash of Greeley's previous writings to lead someone not born into one of those likeable traditions to turn to Catholicism, or of help to anyone who converted because of the attraction of Catholic theology and the Vatican II vision of Church despite the poverty and disfunction of a local Irish Catholic culture of minimal liturgical beauty (concentration on "validity" as good enough) and little or awful music and zero spiritual content. Or who now find themselves stuck in a parish with all the same (updated with awful music) and now overlaid with a return of authoritarian top down heavy handed management from the Vatican and local bishops, the rollback of the Vatican reforms, and the crackdowns on the least signs of life in intellectual life, particularly in Catholic institutions.

What was the "Revolution"? It is when Catholics openly decided not to "receive" (i.e. ratify with "religious assent") fiats from the hierarchy that they found unreasonable, unworkable, and out of touch with reality. The hierarchy still hasn't gotten the message that if the Church (the faithful) doesn't "receive" a teaching (i.e. the believers don't believe it), it can't reflect the "sense of the faithful" no matter how the Vatican invokes infallibility of either the ordinary or papal magisterium. The Vatican doesn't get it that they're function should be to express what the believers who are the Church believe, not tell them what they should believe based on some theoretical neo-scholastic theology and 13th century concepts that ignore everything humanity has learned about itself since.

Greeley's Catholics who stay because they like being Catholic are the ones the Revolution worked for because they've got a compatible or likeable Catholic cultural milieu to fit into. Those who don't, have little reason to stay.

13 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Personal Observations, March 7, 2004

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Forest (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council (Hardcover)

Fr. Greeley has finally written a book that pretty well says it all, with the exception of one sentence. Hans Kung contrary to Fr.Greeley's opinion is "not" a celebrity theologian. Infact its uncanny how many of Fr.Greeley's observations resemble what Hans Kung has already written about in previous books, going back as far as the 80's.

4 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wineskins without Wine, July 10, 2005

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Mr. Orlando R. Barone (Doylestown, PA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council (Hardcover)

In the 1960s, Andrew Greeley was often accused of never having had an unpublished thought. Following his inordinate number of novels, we can now add that he hasn't had an unpublished fantasy. This scattered and strangely dated book envisions a kind of fantasy revolution in an American Catholicism where lay people can be holier than priests (no kidding) even though most of them scoff at strictures against birth control and even abortion, where the biggest problem seems to be that someone removed the statues from the sanctuary of the parish church while failing to appreciate how movies like "Dogma" improve on 2,000 years of theological reflection. He seems to think it objectively true that guitar players are all terrible musicians (take THAT, Les Paul) while all organ players are virtuosos.

He has identified a class of Catholics called "liturgists," whose passionate aim is to strip worship of anything beautiful and everything ancient while replacing it with a pimply-faced folk singer thoroughly versed in his three guitar chords and three hundred heinous hymns which parishioners listen to because they are polite.

He does mention in passing that the new authoritarianism and dogmatism are having an effect but seems oblivious to the fact that those reactionary forces, the ones that elected our new Pope, are spiraling out of control as politicians are denied communion for upholding the law of the land and the priest-pedophile scandal is rapidly morphing into a combination cover-up and gay-bashing frenzy.

Greely is coming out with a book that purports to explain the mystery of the recent papal election. I hope his big issue is not the poor color coordination of Benedict XVI's liturgical vestments.