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Eve, Mary and the Historians: American Catholicism and Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

James J. Kenneally
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Abstract

In viewing women as other “Mary's” many American Catholics have contested movements such as suffrage and higher education, believing them to be threats to a stable society and women's natural position in the home. Such a concept contained the seeds of its own destruction, for other Catholics, on the basis that pious, pure, females were superior to males, advocated that women's influence be extended beyond the immediate family. Contrasted with this “Mary” perception was that of woman as a tempting “Eve” whose societal activities must be confined, since she might undermine male spirituality. These stereotypes, each contributing to anti-feminism, have also influenced historians of Catholicism who tend to ignore the lives and problems of Catholic women. At this juncture in American Church history there is need for-an analysis of feminism's apparent erosion on the faith of Catholic women, and of an explanation as well of how prominent, influential women were able to reconcile their lives outside the home with their Church.

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Articles
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Horizons , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , Fall 1976 , pp. 187 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 1976

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References

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