Overview

As faith communities in the United States grow increasingly more diverse, many churches are turning to the shared parish, a single church facility shared by distinct cultural groups who retain their own worship and ministries. The fastest growing and most common of these are Catholic parishes shared by Latinos and white Catholics. Shared parishes remain one of the few institutions in American society that allows cultural groups to maintain their own language and customs while still engaging in regular intercultural negotiations over the shared space. This book explores the shared parish through an in-depth ethnographic study of a Roman Catholic parish in a small Midwestern city demographically transformed by Mexican immigration in recent decades. Through its depiction of shared parish life, the book argues for new ways of imagining the U.S. Catholic parish as an organization. The parish, argues Brett C. Hoover, must be conceived as both a congregation and part of a centralized system, and as one piece in a complex social ecology. The Shared Parish also posits that the search for identity and adequate intercultural practice in such parishes might call for new approaches to cultural diversity in U.S. society, beyond assimilation or multiculturalism. We must imagine a religious organization that accommodates both the need for safe space within distinct groups and for social networks that connect these groups as they struggle to respectfully co-exist.

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9781479854394

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Reviews

At the heart of this book, Hoover provides a careful study of a Midwestern parish transformed by immigration and the movement of Latina/os beyond the Southwest...[A] welcomed contribution to a multifaceted problem that deserves further action and research. -Choice Trained in theology and social science, adept in Catholic culture and in Spanish, Brett Hoover brilliantly captures the distinctly Catholic phenomenon of the shared parish. He writes with insight and compassion about the alternately tense and calm encounters that take place when two different groups find themselves living religiously together. -R. Stephen Warner,University of Illinois at Chicago Offers a full, rich, and highly satisfying analysis of the challenge of diversity in the Roman Catholic church of America. Yes, we know that broad demographic shifts are affecting the the Catholic church, but this book finally gives an intimate, contextually rich, and theologically astute presentation of ground-level workings of cultural diversity among faithful Catholics who strive to achieve unity amidst their clashing cultural heritages. -Gerardo Marti,author of Worship across the Racial Divide

Trained in theology and social science, adept in Catholic culture and in Spanish, Brett Hoover brilliantly captures the distinctly Catholic phenomenon of the shared parish. He writes with insight and compassion about the alternately tense and calm encounters that take place when two different groups find themselves living religiously together. -R. Stephen Warner, University of Illinois at Chicago Offers a full, rich, and highly satisfying analysis of the challenge of diversity in the Roman Catholic church of America. Yes, we know that broad demographic shifts are affecting the Catholic church, but this book finally gives an intimate, contextually rich, and theologically astute presentation of ground-level workings of cultural diversity among faithful Catholics who strive to achieve unity amidst their clashing cultural heritages. -Gerardo Marti, author of Worship across the Racial Divide

Trained in theology and social science, adept in Catholic culture and in Spanish, Brett Hoover brilliantly captures the distinctly Catholic phenomenon of the shared parish. He writes with insight and compassion about the alternately tense and calm encounters that take place when two different groups find themselves living religiously together. -R. Stephen Warner,University of Illinois at Chicago At the heart of this book, Hoover provides a careful study of a Midwestern parish transformed by immigration and the movement of Latina/os beyond the Southwest... [A] welcomed contribution to a multifaceted problem that deserves further action and research. -Choice [...] The Shared Parish is a book that creatively presents the cultural and religious transformation happening in Catholic places of worship and challenges scholars from the social sciences and theology to engage in further research on this growing phenomenon of shared parishes. -Review of Religious Research Offers a full, rich, and highly satisfying analysis of the challenge of diversity in the Roman Catholic church of America. Yes, we know that broad demographic shifts are affecting the the Catholic church, but this book finally gives an intimate, contextually rich, and theologically astute presentation of ground-level workings of cultural diversity among faithful Catholics who strive to achieve unity amidst their clashing cultural heritages. -Gerardo Marti,author of Worship across the Racial Divide

Author Information

Brett C. Hoover is Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His previous books include Comfort: An Atlas for the Body and Soul.

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