American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism ed. by Gary J. Adler Jr., Tricia C. Bruce and Brian Starks

Abstract

Reviewed by: American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism ed. by Gary J. Adler Jr., Tricia C. Bruce and Brian Starks James C. Cavendish American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism. Edited by Gary J. Adler, Jr., Tricia C. Bruce, and Brian Starks. New York: Fordham University Press, 2019. 224 pp. $30.00. American Parishes is a well-organized, thought-provoking book that calls for a renewed focus on the sociology of Catholic parishes. Until recently, the field of congregational studies, as these authors argue, has focused primarily on Protestant congregations without really recognizing the distinctive features of Catholic parishes. This book successfully brings the insights of congregational studies to bear on Catholic parish life in the United States, and in so doing, helps to establish a research agenda for scholars interested in the sociological dynamics involved in American Catholic parishes today. It is a welcome resource for sociologists of religion, college professors who wish to expand their students’ supplemental reading materials, and church practitioners who seek to familiarize themselves with the key issues and trends in Catholic parish life today. [End Page 85] Part I of the book, “Seeing Parishes Through a Sociological Lens,” summarizes the history of the sociological study of parishes in the United States and highlights the various ways that Catholic parishes are distinct from Protestant congregations, primarily in terms of size, the use of small ministry groups, the availability of clergy, clerical authority, expectations of lay leadership and participation, and congregational diversity. These differences, according to Nancy Ammerman, author of the book’s second chapter, provide the bases “where the study of parishes may genuinely plow new (conceptual) ground” (59), making parishes “fertile ground for examining local religious culture” (62). The chapters that form Part II “Parish Trends,” Part III “Race, Class, and Diversity in the Parish,” and Part IV “Young Catholics In (and Out) of Parishes,” present insights and findings stemming from the contributing authors’ own empirical research into specific aspects of American Catholic parishes. They discuss trends in American Catholics’ parish-going behavior, generational variation in attachment to parishes, and variation within and across parishes in terms of race, ethnicity, class, and region. In Mark Gray’s chapter, for instance, readers learn that although the percentage of Americans who identify as Catholics has remained fairly stable over time, there is a clear downward trend in the percentage who would be regarded as “core” Catholics (i.e., those who are highly involved in their parishes), and that that percentage is not as high is one might think. In Kathleen Graces-Foley’s chapter, we learn that many of the young adult Catholics she studied engage in parish shopping or parish hopping and rarely register at a parish. According to Graces-Foley, these young Catholics, rather than regarding a particular parish as their “home parish,” prefer instead to use parishes as hubs for their participation in various parachurch organizations, transparish social groups, and online social networks. These specific findings, which reveal a declining significance of the parish in the lives of many Catholics, particularly young Catholics, will raise questions among readers about why it is important to take a renewed focus on the sociology of Catholic parishes. Fortunately, the authors provide compelling explanations, on both empirical and theoretical grounds, for why sociologists should continue to examine Catholic parishes today. In Chapter 3, for instance, Gary Adler provides evidence of important changes taking place among Catholic parishes—members and leaders are becoming older and more Hispanic, parish cultures are becoming more theologically conservative and politicized, and participation boundaries for women and gays and lesbians are increasing. These dynamics matter because, as the authors argue, [End Page 86] Catholic parishes occupy and remain “the embedded middle of American Catholicism” (231). They are the meso-level settings in which individual Catholics come together to form community and “create a local identity within a global Catholic Church.” As the point where Catholicism from “below” meets Catholicism from “above,” parishes are an important object of study precisely because they reveal where microlevel actions do not always match macro-level pronouncements. In sum, American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism is an excellent new addition to the literature on American Catholicism. It presents a convincing argument for...