Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836-1920 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Forget any streotypes about passivity. Leaders of many American religious communities had to be adept at church politics. Authority figures--The Bishop, The Priest, The Cardinal, had very fixed ideas about control of property, assigning of nuns to various projects, as well as gratingly petty demands. The CSJs were marvels at outfoxing some of these demanding reverend gentlemen. And, when one considers that The Bishop had the hierarchical authority of the Church as well as Victorian ideas about the submissiveness of women working on his side, the sagicity of these women is admirable.

Occasionaly, the authors compare the lives and work of the CSJs with Protestant women. I found this interesting and useful and wish the book covered the subject more thoroughly.

The authors perhaps overemphasize the freedom of the Sisters, as compared to married women. Get real. 19th century nuns lived in a ludicrously controlled world where drinking water between meals without permission was considered a fault. The fact that Sisters managed to accomplish all that they did despite rules and regulations dating from the Middle Ages is a testimony to their dedication.

I wish I had written this one!

For decades, women's historians have based the emergence of American feminism on the influence of Evangelical Protestantism on white, middle-class women. For that matter, the historiography on American social movements generally has been shaped by this interest in the intersection between religion and reform, more recently adding gender to the mix. Such a focus has, I believe, caused scholars to ignore the committed and growing numbers of Catholic women religious who came to America on missions of mercy and stayed to help build America. Using the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet as a case study, Carol Coburn and Martha Smith's Spirited Lives has both filled the void and analyzed the process. Catholicism, as well as Protestantism, formed this culture we call American, and women were leaders in both instances. This is an important conclusion overlooked for the most part by American social historians.

More importantly for women's history is the growing realization that the intersection of religion, gender and reform is more complicated than previously thought. Catholicism, as well as Evangelical Protestantism, shaped women's lives and shaped American society. Women's history has argued for decades that religion and family role moved women from the private space of the home to the reform activities of public space. Now, thanks to the work of Carol Coburn and Sister Martha Smith, we see that the power gained by nuns from their role in "sacred space" gave them the authority to work for change in the larger secular and public spaces of society. These women, in fact, because of their vows of chastity were free to pursue education and work unfettered by the demands placed on Evangelical women who drew their authority from their status as wives and mothers.

Finally, this book has real value for a wide variety of college classrooms. It is always difficult to find monographs that will allow students to learn about a range of historical topics; this one is perfect for that. Religion, ethnicity and race, immigration, social services and social policy, gender, identity formation, poverty, education, and medicine are all topics covered in this "truly American narrative." (p. 10)

Through their work in schools, hospitals, child care institutions and special education the Sisters of St Joseph interacted with many people outside the Catholic community. Their work in parish schools was particularly important in creating a cohesive and informed Catholic community. It is certain that the history of the Catholic Church in the United States would have been very different had there not been a source of cost effective labour to support a separate school system. As studies on the health care apostolate of the Church (Stepsis & Liptack and Kaufmann) have shown the sisters' apostolate was a means of breaking down prejudice. Their work in private academies did much the same. As the authors point out the work in parish schools also assisted the passage of social mobility for a largely migrant school population.

Not only do we learn how the sisters influenced the population of the United States during its great period of expansion. To the European reader it is also obvious how much the ethos of the pioneer country - not always appreciated by European religious superiors - affected the sisters themselves. The development of religious life in the United States, particularly for those communities founded there or detatched from European congregations, was quite different from that in Europe. In a large country with ever expanding horizons it is much easier to be innovative.

Personally I would have liked a little more comparison between the experience of the Sisters of St Joseph and others communities. On the whole, however, the book was extremely readable and well documented. I cannot claim sufficient acquaintance with feminist theory to say whether this is feminist history. What I do know is that it is good history because it is based on an informed use of rich primary sources and it does not vouch opinion or analysis without sound reasons.

The enormous work of a more general approach is awaited eagerly. If only communities and researchers in Britain had the vast resources that can be taken advantage of in the United States to produce a similar study.