History and American Catholic Understandings of the Sacrament of Penance: 1900–1960

The essay demonstrates that twentieth-century pre-Vatican II American Catholic understandings of the history and theology of sacramental penance has a history, that American Catholic scholars had conflicting theological opinions on the relationship between the history and doctrine of penance, that these divided opinions on the relationship were not resolved prior to Vatican II, and that American Catholic scholarship was dependent upon or derived from previous European scholarship. It is important to illustrate what was happening among scholars to counter or modify the frequent assertion that research and theological scholarship in the pre-conciliar period had been killed off as a result of the anti-modernist movement. The essay also shows that at least a minority of pre-conciliar scholars were prepared and open to developments on penance that took place at the Second Vatican Council. The article provides historical background, therefore, for the theological developments on penance that occurred during the post-conciliar era in the United States.