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There Were Also Many Women There': Roman Catholic Lay Women in the American Liturgical Movement, 1926-1959

thesis
posted on 2011-07-21, 00:00 authored by Katharine Elizabeth Harmon
The advancement of the field of liturgical studies as a venue for contemporary critical historical and theological discourse depends upon liturgical scholars who effectively utilize gender in their method of analysis. Presently, in liturgical studies, the voices and witnesses of women are often marginalized or completely absent from the recounting of a liturgical-historical narrative. This dissertation, titled ''There Were Also Many Women There': Roman Catholic Lay Women in the American Liturgical Movement,' re-examines the narrative of the liturgical movement by focusing on this complex era of liturgical reform and the practical, spiritual, and intellectual engagement of lay, non-religious women with liturgical worship within the mid-twentieth century American Roman Catholic Church. A study of this nature offers a fresh perspective by recovering the integral role which lay women played in the development of liturgical life, including social action, education, worship practice, and familial activity. This historical survey begins with the origins of the liturgical movement in nineteenth century Europe and European women's involvement (chapter 1), before describing the unique social context of American women who entered the liturgical movement in the twentieth century (chapter 2). Detailing the advance of the Catholic intellectual movement and radical Catholic social movements (chapter 3); and the importance of an integrated lifestyle which sought to combine liturgy with life and labor (chapter 4); leads to the final social frontier of the liturgical movement, the Catholic family and home life (chapter 5). Throughout, use of primary sources reveals the integral nature of American women's work within the mainstream of the liturgical movement, contributing a valuable new social history to the field of modern liturgical studies.

History

Date Modified

2017-06-02

Defense Date

2011-06-24

Research Director(s)

Nathan D. Mitchell

Committee Members

Maxwell E. Johnson Mary Catherine Hilkert, O.P.

Degree

  • Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Level

  • Doctoral Dissertation

Language

  • English

Alternate Identifier

etd-07212011-211312

Publisher

University of Notre Dame

Program Name

  • Theology

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