Is American Catholicism Anti-Intellectual?

Abstract

Catholicism in the US has often been characterized by internal and external critics alike as an anti-intellectual religious culture. This study reexamines the issue in light of new evidence, comparing Catholic and non-Catholic responses to items pertaining to orientation toward intellect in the 1988 General Social Survey. We found Catholics and non-Catholics to be virtually indistinguishable in their intellectual orientations even when education, birth cohort, and sex are controlled. In a more detailed analysis, however, we found Catholics to be significantly more positive on some measures of intellectual orientation than fundamentalist Protestants, but significantly less so than nonfundamentalist Protestants, Jews, and those with no religious affiliation. We explore the implications of these findings for the future intellectual vitality of American Catholicism