Called to Serve
A History of Nuns in America
by Margaret M. McGuinness
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Pub Date Mar 04 2013 | Archive Date May 06 2013
Description
Winner, Conference on the History of Women Religious (CHWR) Distinguished Book Award
Winner, 2014 Catholic Book Award in History presented by the Catholic Press Association
For many
Americans, nuns and sisters are the face of the Catholic Church. Far more
visible than priests, Catholic women religious teach at schools, found
hospitals, offer food to the poor, and minister to those in need. Their work
has shaped the American Catholic Church throughout its history. Yet despite
their high profile, a concise history of American Catholic sisters and nuns has
yet to be published. In Called to Serve, Margaret
M. McGuinness provides the reader with an overview of the history of Catholic
women religious in American life, from the colonial period to the present.
The early
years of religious life in the United States found women religious in immigrant
communities and on the frontier, teaching, nursing, and caring for marginalized
groups. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, the role of women
religious began to change. They have fewer members than ever, and their
population is aging rapidly. And the method of their ministry is changing as
well: rather than merely feeding and clothing the poor, religious sisters are
now working to address the social structures that contribute to poverty,
fighting what one nun calls “social sin.” In the face of a changing world and shifting priorities, women religious
must also struggle to strike a balance between the responsibilities of their
faith and the limitations imposed upon them by their church.
Rigorously
researched and engagingly written, Called
to Serve offers a compelling portrait of Catholic women religious
throughout American history.
Advance Praise
"For generations of American Catholics, the face of their church was, quite literally, a woman's face—the nursing sister in the hospital where they were born, the teaching sister in the school where they were educated, the caring sister who helped them through times of trouble. McGuinness recovers the compelling story of these sisters and puts them back at the center of American Catholic history."
—James M. O'Toole, Boston College
"Conveys the history of American women’s religious life in its astonishing breadth and diversity. McGuinness writes with the authority of a scholar and the ease of a storyteller. Her collective portrait of the women who have for so long represented the face of the American Catholic church will be useful to not only to historians of women and of religion in the United States, but also to general readers who wish to learn about the often hidden and far-ranging contributions vowed women have made to church and nation."
—Kathleen Sprows Cummings, University of Notre Dame
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780814795569 |
| PRICE | $89.00 (USD) |
