Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape
David A. Yamane
Abstract
How is religious tradition brought into modern society and transformed by modern social forces? Becoming Catholic approaches this broad question through an examination of the process by which individuals become Catholic in a late-modern society: the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). In focusing attention on the parishes that implement this rite of passage and the individuals who go through it, the story of the RCIA provides a window onto the Catholic tradition as it is carried through the flux of modernity. This book argues that “Catholic” is not just a box to be checked, but an i ... More
How is religious tradition brought into modern society and transformed by modern social forces? Becoming Catholic approaches this broad question through an examination of the process by which individuals become Catholic in a late-modern society: the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). In focusing attention on the parishes that implement this rite of passage and the individuals who go through it, the story of the RCIA provides a window onto the Catholic tradition as it is carried through the flux of modernity. This book argues that “Catholic” is not just a box to be checked, but an identity to be achieved through a lengthy liturgical and formational process that both follows and departs from the pattern found by Arnold van Gennep in his famous studies of rites of passage. The initiation process itself is implemented differently from parish to parish and therefore provides insight into the lived reality of Catholicism as it is produced at the local level. Themes highlighted in the book include: conversion as moral action, explicit and hidden curricula in catechesis, liturgy and experience, identity formation, and objective and subjective incorporation.
Keywords:
Catholicism,
conversion,
initiation,
rites of passage,
religious identity,
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults,
RCIA,
tradition,
modernity,
[Arnold] van Gennep
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199964987 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199964987.001.0001 |
