
American Catholics
A History
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Pam Ward
About this listen
A sweeping history of American Catholicism from the arrival of the first Spanish missionaries to the present
This comprehensive survey of Catholic history in what became the United States spans nearly 500 years, from the arrival of the first Spanish missionaries to the present. Distinguished historian Leslie Tentler explores lay religious practice and the impact of clergy on Catholic life and culture as she seeks to answer the question, What did it mean to be a "good Catholic" at particular times and in particular places?
In its focus on Catholics' participation in American politics and Catholic intellectual life, this book includes in-depth discussions of Catholics, race, and the Civil War; Catholics and public life in the 20th century; and Catholic education and intellectual life.
Shedding light on topics of recent interest such as the role of Catholic women in parish and community life, Catholic reproductive ethics regarding birth control, and the Catholic church sex abuse crisis, this engaging history provides an up-to-date account of the history of American Catholicism.
©2020 Yale University (P)2020 eChristianListeners also enjoyed...
-
Witness to Hope
- The Biography of Pope John Paul II
- By: George Weigel
- Narrated by: Sam Tsoutsouvas
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Witness to Hope is the authoritative biography of one of the singular figures - some might argue the singular figure - of our time. With unprecedented cooperation from John Paul II and the people who knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers a groundbreaking portrait of the Pope as a man, a thinker, and a leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world politics - and changed the course of history.
-
-
NOT Unabridged
- By Dr. Michael Anthony Novak on 03-03-20
By: George Weigel
-
Catholicism
- A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis
- By: John T. McGreevy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of Roman Catholicism has never followed a singular path. In no time period has this been more true than over the last two centuries. Beginning with the French Revolution, extending to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, and concluding with present-day crises, John T. McGreevy chronicles the dramatic upheavals and internal divisions shaping the most multicultural, multilingual, and global institution in the world. Through powerful stories and sweeping birds-eye views, Catholicism provides a mesmerizing assessment of the Church's complex role in modern history.
-
-
Historian as Advocate
- By R. S. Corzine on 10-08-23
By: John T. McGreevy
-
Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 24 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names—from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine—Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes listeners on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West.
-
-
Hard to take a break from it!
- By Mariano's Music on 12-09-21
By: Dan Jones
-
Strangers in a Strange Land
- Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World
- By: Charles J. Chaput
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Charles J. Chaput, author of Living the Catholic Faith and Render unto Caesar, comes Strangers in a Strange Land, a fresh, urgent, and ultimately hopeful treatise on the state of Catholicism and Christianity in the United States. America today is different in kind, not just in degree, from the past. And this new reality is unlikely to be reversed.
-
-
A Must Read
- By CFletcher on 07-04-17
-
Elizabeth Seton: American Saint
- By: Catherine O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1975, two centuries after her birth, Pope Paul VI canonized Elizabeth Ann Seton, making her the first saint to be a native-born citizen of the US in the Roman Catholic Church. Hers was an exemplary early American life of struggle, ambition, questioning, and faith, and in this flowing biography, Catherine O'Donnell has given Seton her due.
-
-
Historical novel
- By Karyn Albert on 02-10-23
-
Thomas Merton
- An Introduction to His Life, Teachings, and Practices
- By: Jon M. Sweeney
- Narrated by: Jon M. Sweeney
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Merton offers a unique view of the popular and sometimes controversial monk, braiding together his thoughts and practices with the reality of his life to create a full portrait of a pivotal figure. The Merton revealed in its pages is a source of inspiration and insight for those wrestling with questions of faith and spirituality.
By: Jon M. Sweeney
-
Witness to Hope
- The Biography of Pope John Paul II
- By: George Weigel
- Narrated by: Sam Tsoutsouvas
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Witness to Hope is the authoritative biography of one of the singular figures - some might argue the singular figure - of our time. With unprecedented cooperation from John Paul II and the people who knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers a groundbreaking portrait of the Pope as a man, a thinker, and a leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world politics - and changed the course of history.
-
-
NOT Unabridged
- By Dr. Michael Anthony Novak on 03-03-20
By: George Weigel
-
Catholicism
- A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis
- By: John T. McGreevy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of Roman Catholicism has never followed a singular path. In no time period has this been more true than over the last two centuries. Beginning with the French Revolution, extending to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, and concluding with present-day crises, John T. McGreevy chronicles the dramatic upheavals and internal divisions shaping the most multicultural, multilingual, and global institution in the world. Through powerful stories and sweeping birds-eye views, Catholicism provides a mesmerizing assessment of the Church's complex role in modern history.
-
-
Historian as Advocate
- By R. S. Corzine on 10-08-23
By: John T. McGreevy
-
Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 24 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names—from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine—Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes listeners on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West.
-
-
Hard to take a break from it!
- By Mariano's Music on 12-09-21
By: Dan Jones
-
Strangers in a Strange Land
- Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World
- By: Charles J. Chaput
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Charles J. Chaput, author of Living the Catholic Faith and Render unto Caesar, comes Strangers in a Strange Land, a fresh, urgent, and ultimately hopeful treatise on the state of Catholicism and Christianity in the United States. America today is different in kind, not just in degree, from the past. And this new reality is unlikely to be reversed.
-
-
A Must Read
- By CFletcher on 07-04-17
-
Elizabeth Seton: American Saint
- By: Catherine O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1975, two centuries after her birth, Pope Paul VI canonized Elizabeth Ann Seton, making her the first saint to be a native-born citizen of the US in the Roman Catholic Church. Hers was an exemplary early American life of struggle, ambition, questioning, and faith, and in this flowing biography, Catherine O'Donnell has given Seton her due.
-
-
Historical novel
- By Karyn Albert on 02-10-23
-
Thomas Merton
- An Introduction to His Life, Teachings, and Practices
- By: Jon M. Sweeney
- Narrated by: Jon M. Sweeney
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Merton offers a unique view of the popular and sometimes controversial monk, braiding together his thoughts and practices with the reality of his life to create a full portrait of a pivotal figure. The Merton revealed in its pages is a source of inspiration and insight for those wrestling with questions of faith and spirituality.
By: Jon M. Sweeney
-
Vatican I
- The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church
- By: John W. O'Malley
- Narrated by: Matthew McAuliffe
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The enduring influence of the Catholic Church has many sources, but in the first half of the 19th century, the foundations upon which the church had rested were shaken. For many people, liberalism in the guise of liberty, equality, and fraternity was the quintessence of the evils that shook those foundations. At the Vatican Council of 1869-1870, the church made an effort to set things right by defining the doctrine of papal infallibility. Author John W. O'Malley draws us into the bitter controversies over papal infallibility that at one point seemed destined to rend the church in two.
-
-
The content is outstanding
- By Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on 01-04-19
By: John W. O'Malley
-
Mormonism and White Supremacy
- American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence
- By: Joanna Brooks
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As America begins to come to terms with the costs of White privilege to Black lives, this book urges a soul-searching examination of the role American Christianity has played in sustaining everyday white supremacy by assuring White people of their innocence. In Mormonism and White Supremacy, Joanna Brooks offers an unflinching look at her own people's history and culture and finds in them lessons that will hit home for every scholar of American religion and person of faith.
-
-
Vituperative and Misleading
- By Myron Johnson on 05-14-21
By: Joanna Brooks
-
Christianity
- The First Three Thousand Years
- By: Diarmaid MacCulloch
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 46 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once in a generation, a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read or heard - a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Breathtaking in ambition, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith.
-
-
Bias
- By 8cdpmpppm on 10-04-10
-
The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1, Revised and Updated
- The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation
- By: Justo L. González
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1, Justo L. González, author of the highly praised three-volume History of Christian Thought, presents a narrative history of Christianity from the early church to the dawn of the Protestant reformation. From Jesus' faithful apostles to the early reformist John Wycliffe, González skillfully traces core theological issues and developments within the various traditions of the church, including major events outside of Europe, such as the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the New World.
-
-
Throughly engaging
- By Scott Pursley on 12-15-16
-
Fundamentalism and American Culture
- 2nd Edition
- By: George M. Marsden
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fundamentalism and American Culture has long been considered a classic in religious history, and to this day remains unsurpassed. Now available in a new edition, this highly regarded analysis takes us through the full history of the origin and direction of one of America's most influential religious movements.
-
-
objectivity
- By Caleb on 07-16-24
-
White Too Long
- The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity
- By: Robert P. Jones
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“An indispensible study” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience that presents a provocative examination of the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy, and issues an urgent call for White Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.
-
-
The scourge of White Christian Supremacy
- By Buretto on 07-30-20
By: Robert P. Jones
-
The Chosen Wars
- By: Steven R. Weisman
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Chosen Wars tells the dramatic story of how Judaism redefined itself in America in the 18th and 19th centuries - the personalities that fought each other and shaped its evolution and, importantly, the force of the American dynamic that prevailed over an ancient religion. Determined to take their places as equals in the young nation, American Jews rejected identity as a separate nation and embraced a secular America. Judaism became an American religion.
-
-
A History of the Reform Movement
- By E. B. Weinberg on 08-24-18
-
The Old Religion in a New World
- The History of North American Christianity
- By: Mark A. Noll
- Narrated by: Trevor Thompson
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of our foremost historians of religion here chronicles the arrival of Christianity in the New World, tracing the turning points in the development of the immigrant church that have led to today's distinctly American faith. Taking a unique approach to this fascinating subject, Noll focuses on what was new about organized Christian religion on the American continent by comparison with European Christianity.
-
-
Fascinating!
- By Margaret on 08-24-19
By: Mark A. Noll
-
The Triumph of Christianity
- How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion
- By: Rodney Stark
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated religious and social historian Rodney Stark traces the extraordinary rise of Christianity through its most pivotal and controversial moments to offer fresh perspective on the history of the world's largest religion.
-
-
Balanced and unapologetic, excellent read
- By JARAM, CT on 08-04-20
By: Rodney Stark
-
The Democratization of American Christianity
- By: Nathan O. Hatch
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The half century following the American Revolution witnessed the transformation of American Christianity. The passion for equality, says Hatch, brought about a crisis or religious authority in popular culture, introduced new and popular forms of theology, witnessed the rise of minority religious movements, reshaped preaching, singing, and publishing, and became a scriptural foundation for 19th century American individualism.
-
-
Wow, eye opening
- By Dusty Jackson on 01-06-21
By: Nathan O. Hatch
-
The Next Christendom
- The Coming of Global Christianity
- By: Philip Jenkins
- Narrated by: Robert Feifar
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this new and substantially expanded Third Edition, Philip Jenkins continues to illuminate the remarkable expansion of Christianity in the global South - in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Drawing upon the extensive new scholarship that has appeared on this topic in recent years, he asks how the new Christianity is likely to affect the poor, among whom it finds its most devoted adherents. How should we interpret the enormous success of prosperity churches across the Global South? Politically, what will be the impact of new Christian movements?
-
-
Be aware that the audio book is an old edition
- By GANC Line on 04-20-18
By: Philip Jenkins
-
The Triumph of Faith
- Why the World Is More Religious than Ever
- By: Rodney Stark
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everybody seems to take it for granted that the world is getting more secular - that faith is doomed by modernity. Scientists, secularists, and atheists applaud the change; religious believers lament it. But here's the thing: They're all wrong, and acclaimed author Rodney Stark has the numbers to prove it. The Triumph of Faith explodes the myth that people around the world are abandoning religion.
-
-
Lots of amazing statistics, a clear thesis, lots of tangents
- By Mr. and Mrs.G on 07-06-16
By: Rodney Stark
What listeners say about American Catholics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Columbia Pete
- 02-16-22
An interesting history of the US Catholic Church
I enjoyed listening to the various episodes. The narrator's pronunciation of technical ecclesiastical words was off in some instances.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ian
- 02-21-23
Great female perspective!
A wonderful summary of Catholics on the North American continent from a female perspective! The reader likes to attempt some different accents from time to time though lol
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mimi Routh
- 05-15-23
Good Book! Great Subject!
And terrible reader! This narrator inflicts pain, blasting the ears on syllables chosen for no apparent reason. I loved hearing how many brave, lonely, committed people traveled, prayed and preached around the world down thru the centuries to spread this beautiful faith in my country. But if anybody ever put Pam Ward's reading thru sound equipment, they would realize she qualifies for torture! The needle would jump and lie way down about every fifth syllable. The listener is absolutely BLASTED by this harsh female voice. Oh, sure she sounds authoritative, but I did not agree to suffer! I'm bailing with half an hour to go. It was interesting to hear about my own time and realize that the church I know was born about the year I converted -- 1972. Audible should fire Pam Ward and pay me for putting up with this difficult recordingt!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!