The Saints in the Lives of Italian Americans (Filibrary series)

The Saints in the Lives of Italian Americans represents an interdisciplinary investigation, consiting of fourteen essays that come from complimentry sociological, historical, psychological, philosophical, and theological perspectives. Readers will be offered a range of viewpoints on such important issues as, among others, the extent and nature of contemporary Italian-American Catholic assimilation into secular culture; the existance of an "Italian problem" within the Catholic Church of the U.S.; the relationship between "folk" and "offical" religiosity; the role of various types of multiculturalism vis-a-vis an authentic sense of Italianit and Catholicity; and whether an acceptance of the concept of sainthood constitutes a broadening or contracting of the horizons of human consciousness. The work is written in a style that will appeal to both the scholar and the well-educated citizen.