In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America by Margaret M. McGuinness
  • Joseph G. Mannard
Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America. By Margaret M. McGuinness. (NewYork: New York University Press. 2013. Pp. ix, 266. $35.00. ISBN 978-0-8147-9556-9.)

The last three decades have witnessed a blossoming of scholarship on the history of women religious in the United States that has moved the experience of nuns from the margins closer to the mainstream of American church and women’s history. [End Page 380] Lacking until now, however, has been a brief, readable synthesis of this growing literature that is accessible both to the scholar and general reader. With publication of Called to Serve, Margaret McGuinness fills this gap admirably. McGuinness, professor of religion at La Salle University, former coeditor of American Catholic Studies, and author of books and articles about women religious, is well suited to handle this daunting task. The author demonstrates a sure command of both the older and recent literature, smoothly integrates its findings, draws cogent conclusions, and—by implication—points to new research directions.

McGuinness deftly compresses more than two centuries of convent life and work in the United States into just 200 pages of narrative. In this “collective history” of vowed women, the author convincingly backs up her claim that “with the exception of celebrating Mass or administering the sacraments, sisters were more actively involved in the everyday lives of Catholics than priests,” making them in the past and present “the face of the U. S. Catholic Church” for many Americans, Catholic and non-Catholic (p. 8). Although clearly admiring Catholic sisters for their labors on behalf of their Church and others, McGuinness avoids hagiography of her subjects. She recognizes, for example, that nuns have often shared the cultural attitudes and assumptions about race, ethnicity, class, and gender of the larger American society, sometimes to the detriment of the very people they served.

As the title implies, the focus of this book is on nuns’ “work, or ministry” (p.9). In eight well-crafted chapters, McGuinness constructs a representative rather than a comprehensive portrait of women religious in America. After chapter 1 introduces the first eight permanent foundations established by 1830, chapter 2 explores how convents of both native and foreign origin coped with the first great waves of immigration from Ireland and Germany in the three decades before the American Civil War. Chapters 3 through 5 cover the decades from the Civil War to end of World War II by focusing on the active ministries of education, health care, and social services respectively that nuns provided both to immigrants, mostly from southern and eastern Europe, and to Native, African, and Mexican Americans. The next chapter traces the first century and a half of contemplative orders in America, whose ministry is prayer. Chapter 7 examines the lasting challenges and changes to religious life stemming from internal developments like the Second Vatican Council and external ones like the civil rights, antiwar, and women’s liberation movements of the 1960s. The final chapter finds that, despite decreasing numbers and an aging population, nuns, as they faced the new century, could still be found not only in traditional apostolates but also in new, sometimes controversial, social justice ministries providing a preferential “option for the poor” (p. 183). Whether protesting against American foreign policy, nuclear weapons, or capital punishment, or advocating for immigration reform and the environment, some nuns now seek to address structural problems in American society and the world.

This book will make an excellent supplement to reading lists for courses in either Catholic or women’s studies. The more than fifty pages of notes and bibliography alone provide an essential resource for anyone researching and writing on [End Page 381] the subject. That New York University Press published this volume is itself a sign that the history of women religious is now gaining deserved attention from a broader academic audience.

Joseph G. Mannard
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
...

pdf

Share