About This Issue

Richard Gribble, CSC (Stonehill College) contributes our lead article, telling us of Father Nelson Baker (1842–1936), an iconic figure in Western New York, who administered an institution for orphan boys and an infant home for unwed mothers and their children, and found the inspiration for his ministry through his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Kyle E. Haden, OFM (St. Bonaventure University) explores works representative of the various methodologies used to explain Anti-Catholicism in American history, and offers a proposal for a new approach using Human Identity Theory.

Professor Emerita Mary Jo Weaver (Indiana University) recalls how a retreat in a cloistered Carmelite monastery in 1980 developed into a long relationship with special rewards.

Our cover essay, “Solidarity and Spirit: The Rough-and-Tumble Faith of Ralph Chaplin ” by Kevin J. Christiano (University of Notre Dame) shares the story of one of the most important writers, artists, and activists in the movement for the rights of workers in America, including his choice at age sixty-two, to enter the Catholic Church. The cover pictures are explained at the end of the essay.

Eight book reviews continue our journal's commitment to offer the best and most extensive review section in American Catholic studies.