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9780813229201 Academic Inspection Copy

Greenwich Village Catholics

St. Joseph's Church and the Evolution of an Urban Faith Community, 1829-2002
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St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village relates the life of a local faith community to the larger religious and secular world of which it is a part, and reciprocally illuminates that bigger world from the perspective of this local community. During the life span of this parish, the Catholic community in New York City has grown from a mere thirty or forty thousand to over three million in two dioceses. St. Joseph's Church began as a poor immigrant parish in a hostile Protestant environment, developed into a prosperous working-class parish as the area became predominantly Catholic, survived a series of local economic and social upheavals, and remains today a vibrant spiritual center in the midst of an overwhelmingly secular neighborhood. Its history provides a fascinating glimpse of the evolution of Catholicism in New York City during the course of the past -?" years. The history of this parish is worth telling for its own sake as the collective journey of one faith community from immigrant mission to pillar of society and then to spiritual outpost in the Secular City. However, it has significance far beyond the boundaries of Greenwich Village because it documents at the most basic and vital level of Catholic communal organization the interaction between change and continuity that has been one of the most prominent features of urban Catholicism in the United States over the past two centuries.
Thomas J. Shelley is emeritus professor of historical theology at Fordham University.
"An engaging account of a quintessentially urban parish in New York City-a local church community old enough to have encountered all of the nuances of American Catholic life . . . demonstrates strongly the value of scholarly study of church life at its basic level." -Church History "Recommended for general readers and scholars interested in American Catholicism, New York City, Greenwich Village or urban history." -Catholic Historical Review"Shelley's work is an exceptional and indispensable study of Catholic urban life in America." -Cithara.
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