Michael Pasquier – författare

Michael Pasquier examines the "lived" religion of French missionaries in their daily encounters with anti-Catholic Protestants and anti-clerical Catholics on the American frontier. Focusing on the collective thoughts, feelings, and actions of priests who found themselves caught between the formal canonical standards of the church and the informal experiences of missionaries in American culture, Pasquier illuminates the historical intersection of American, French, and Roman interests in the United States. Several important conclusions emerge. Pasquier shows that the French missionaries were pivotal actors in the transition from English republican Catholicism of the 18th century to the multiethnic American Catholicism of the 19th. These missionaries lived, he shows, along a fluid spectrum of Catholicism that moved between a Romanized and an American church, neither of which existed in the rigid forms constructed by historians. He finds that at no point did French missionaries engage more directly in distinctively American affairs than in the religious debates surrounding slavery, secessions, and civil war. These issues, he shows, compelled even the most politically aloof missionaries to step out of the shadow of Rome and stake their church on the side of the Confederacy. In so doing, they set in motion a strain of Catholicism more amenable to Southern concepts of social conservatism, paternalism, and white supremacy, and strikingly different from the liberal, progressive strain that historians have usually highlighted.

From the colonial period to the present, the Mississippi River has impacted religious communities from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Exploring the religious landscape along the 2,530 miles of the largest river system in North America, the essays in Gods of the Mississippi make a compelling case for American religion in motion—not just from east to west, but also from north to south. With discussion of topics such as the religions of the Black Atlantic, religion and empire, antebellum religious movements, the Mormons at Nauvoo, black religion in the delta, Catholicism in the Deep South, and Johnny Cash and religion, this volume contributes to a richer understanding of this diverse, dynamic, and fluid religious world.

From the colonial period to the present, the Mississippi River has impacted religious communities from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Exploring the religious landscape along the 2,530 miles of the largest river system in North America, the essays in Gods of the Mississippi make a compelling case for American religion in motion—not just from east to west, but also from north to south. With discussion of topics such as the religions of the Black Atlantic, religion and empire, antebellum religious movements, the Mormons at Nauvoo, black religion in the delta, Catholicism in the Deep South, and Johnny Cash and religion, this volume contributes to a richer understanding of this diverse, dynamic, and fluid religious world.

Religion in America: The Basics is a concise introduction to the historical development of religions in the United States. It is an invitation to explore the complex tapestry of religious beliefs and practices that shaped life in North America from the colonial encounters of the fifteenth century to the culture wars of the twenty-first century. Far from a people unified around a common understanding of Christianity, Religion in America: The Basics tracks the steady diversification of the American religious landscape and the many religious conflicts that have changed American society. At the same time, it explores how Americans from a variety of religious backgrounds worked together to face the challenges of racism, poverty, war, and other social concerns. This thoroughly revised second edition now covers the Obama and Trump administrations, Black Lives Matter, Christian nationalism, pluralism, and the development of the "nones" and the "unaffiliated." With each chapter featuring concise summaries and suggested further readings, this book is an invaluable resource for students approaching the history of religion in America for the first time.

Religion in America: The Basics is a concise introduction to the historical development of religions in the United States. It is an invitation to explore the complex tapestry of religious beliefs and practices that shaped life in North America from the colonial encounters of the fifteenth century to the culture wars of the twenty-first century. Far from a people unified around a common understanding of Christianity, Religion in America: The Basics tracks the steady diversification of the American religious landscape and the many religious conflicts that have changed American society. At the same time, it explores how Americans from a variety of religious backgrounds worked together to face the challenges of racism, poverty, war, and other social concerns. This thoroughly revised second edition now covers the Obama and Trump administrations, Black Lives Matter, Christian nationalism, pluralism, and the development of the "nones" and the "unaffiliated." With each chapter featuring concise summaries and suggested further readings, this book is an invaluable resource for students approaching the history of religion in America for the first time.

Exposes the deep Catholic roots of American horrorFrom exorcisms to suffocating catacombs, grinning corpses, and electric holy water, Catholicism and American horror go hand in hand. Body and Blood cuts horror open to reveal how the Catholic tradition has shaped its supernatural and grotesque aesthetics in the modern world.Making the case that it is impossible to understand the enduring popularity of horror without recognizing its religious elements, this volume makes two groundbreaking claims. First, that there is a profoundly Catholic current coursing through modern American horror and that the genre comes alive in new ways when we hold it to the light of the Catholic past. And second, that Catholic history is horrifying in ways that demand our attention, ranging from the supernatural figures who visited children with visions of the apocalypse to settler colonialism and clergy sexual abuse. Catholicism is not exceptional in its capacity to horrify, of course. However, this book shows how contending with the Catholic dimension of the genre teaches us something important about horror and its hold on audiences in the United States, and it invites us to understand Catholicism anew.Offering a shocking view of Catholic history as you have never seen it before, Body and Blood presents both scholars and fans alike with an accessible entry into the dark underbelly of America's religious landscape.