The Changing Faces of Catholicism: Vol 9

Catholicism is generally over-institutionalized and over-centralized in comparison to other religions. However, it finds itself in an increasingly interrelated and globalized world and is therefore immersed in a great plurality of social realities. The Changing Faces of Catholicism assembles an international cast of contributors to explore the consequent decline of powerful Catholic organisations as well as to address the responses and resistance efforts that specific countries have taken to counteract the secularization crisis in both Europe and the Americas. It reveals some of the strategies of the Catholic Church as a whole, and of the Vatican centre in particular, to address problems of the global era through the dissemination of spiritually progressive writing, World Youth Days, and the transformation of Catholic education to become a forum for intercultural and interreligious dialogue. The volume also reflects on the adaptation of Catholic institutions and missions as sponsored by religious communities and monastic orders.

Solange Lefebvre, Université de Montréal, is Professor of Religious Studies. Her publications include the edited volume Public Commissions on Cultural and Religious Diversity: Analysis, Reception and Challenges (Routledge, 2017).

Alfonso Pérez-Agote, Complutense University of Madrid, is Professor of Sociology. His publications include Cambio religioso en España: los avatares de la secularización (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, Madrid, 2012), The Intimate, Polity and the Catholic Church (coedited with Karel Dobbelaere, Leuven University Press, 2015) and Religion in the Public Sphere: Canadian Case Studies (University of Toronto Press, 2014).

Contributors are: Kevin Ahern, Andrea Althoff, Valérie Aubourg, Tricia C. Bruce, Karel Dobbelaere, Alejandro Gabriel Emiliano Flores, Paul L. Gareau, Ramiro Gómez-Arzápalo, Isabelle Jonveaux, Jean-François Laniel, Andrew P. Lynch, Sławomir Mandes, Graham P. McDonough, Wojciech Sadłoń, Jesús Antonio Serrano Sánchez, Barbora Spalová, Jakob Egeris Thorsen, Helena Vilaça, Liliane Voyé