Debating God's Economy: Social Justice in America on the Eve of Vatican II (review)

Over the last forty years there has been an explosion of work on the history of American Catholicism. Earlier work came largely from seminary professors working church history. Shortly after the end of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) scholars trained in American history turned to American Catholics. Even more research was done by Catholic theologians with a new interest in the American Catholic experience. This arose in part from the Council's call for renewal, but also from the introduction of theology into American Catholic colleges and universities. That move required teachers to know more about the American church which helped form so many of their students. That same move also meant that Catholic scholars and teachers for the first time encountered the tension between theology and religious studies long kept at bay for Catholics by pre-Vatican II controls exerted over theological research. Once scholars engaged Catholicism in the United States, tensions between theological and religious studies approaches to American Catholic history were inevitable. Those tensions were further complicated by the fact that many scholars in the field were also committed Catholics concerned about the life and work of the Church they studied. For them, the theology-religious studies debate had important ecclesiastical consequences.

This background is essential to appreciation of Craig Prentiss's study. The author states that his first goal was to tell the story of a group of men and women passionately committed to bringing Roman Catholic teaching to bear on the American economy. Accordingly, he has written a fine study of Catholic social thought, really economic thought, from the Great Depression to Vatican II. The book is marked by extensive research, impressive references to works in American intellectual and political history, and equally impressive explanations of theological and philosophical arguments. By extending his coverage through the 1950s, he complements earlier studies, which, as he notes, often skipped over the years between World War II and the Council.

There is more contention here than is usually found in studies of this sort. Prentiss notices differences and seeks out critics of the dominant figures, treating all seriously and using only with caution categories of "progressive" and "conservative." In these sometimes passionate debates, Prentiss notices what many scholars miss: that there is a politics of ideas within and as well as outside the Church. All his subjects were "insiders" in intra-Catholic debates, but not all were "insiders" in terms of the power structures of the Church.

Prentiss' second goal was "methodological," and he goes to some length to explain that this is a work in religious studies. He makes effective use of analytical terms drawn from that field, such as ideology, arguing that the scholars and movements he examines were generating and promoting a wide range of ideas and symbols that enabled Catholics to "see" the world in particular ways. Behind the ideologies was a larger myth, "narrative ideology," drawn from the papal social encyclicals of Leo XIII and Pius XI, whose authority united contending groups. Everyone appealed to the encyclicals and sought the endorsement of bishops who were authorized to interpret papal teaching. The religious studies approach avoids giving any position normative status and generates an admirable even-handedness and reservation of judgment. Theologians and many Catholic studies professionals may find that detachment disturbing.

The author's third goal was to better integrate the history of American Catholicism with larger bodies of work exploring American culture. He acknowledges the influence of his mentor and friend, the late Peter D'Agostino, who noted that the historical work of Catholic insiders often became advocacy history shaped by their particular understandings of Catholic responsibilities. Prentiss finds in almost all cases these activists and the scholars who worked with them had reform agendas that shaped their interpretations of papal teaching and American conditions. He tries, and usually...