Author and Reviewer: An Exchange
In: International journal of politics, culture and society, Band 13, Heft 3, S. 561-565
ISSN: 0891-4486
In Author's Response, Mark S. Massa responds to Andrew M. Greeley's (2000) review of the former's Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team (1999). Greeley's notation that Massa claims that the mainstream Catholic community functions like an ethnic group, with an ultimate goal of cultural assimilation, is confirmed. It is held, however, that the Catholic fulfillment of this goal has been uncomfortable, because for many religions, including Catholicism, a sense of not belonging to the common fold is almost necessary. The structure of Massa's book is described, & it is held to function as nine separate stories, strung together by a single narrative voice. Greeley & Massa disagree about how much US Catholics have changed since 1950, but agree about Catholicism functioning as an "ethnic group of ethnic groups." In Reviewer's Response, Greeley states that he & Massa do not agree on irony, claiming that Massa's model cannot be proved because it cannot be disproved, while his does not have that problem. D. Weibel