Deep Down Things: Essays on Catholic Culture explores common threads that characterize Catholicism. The contributors look successively at: Catholic culture and everyday life of the parish and of work, at Catholic culture and the imaginative life of poets and fiction writers, and at Catholic culture and postmodern life where individual conscience, skepticism, and relativism challenge Church authority and faith itself. They do so while looking for foundational components that persist and comprise a culture that Catholics recognize regardless of their diverse ethnicity, geographic location, or historical epoch. The authors of this collection have aimed to inspire both Catholics and non-Catholics alike, inside and outside the academic community, to deepen their own knowledge and appreciation of the Christian tradition generally and Catholic culture particularly. The authors hope to encourage sincere and open dialogue about Catholic culture (in the best tradition of Catholic thought) both to further the inquiry after truth and to enhance fruitful reflection upon Catholic culture and its contributions over time and across cultures.

This study of Catholicism articulates how theological teachings trickle down from the Vatican and influence decisions about food, marriage, sex, community celebrations, and medical care.

While in the early years of the century Catholics in America were for the most part distrusted outsiders with respect to the dominant culture, by the 1960s the mainstream of American Catholicism was in many ways "the culture's loudest and most uncritical cheerleader." Mark Massa explores the rich irony in this postwar transition, by examining key figures in American culture in the last century.

Discusses the growing population of Hispanic-Americans worshipping in the Catholic Church in the United States.

Is the Church about to come apart? To the outsider looking in, it might seem so. On one side is "Culture One" - millions of devout Catholics who feel comfortable in the traditional Church & who resist changes that seem to accommodate modern secular culture. On the other side is "Culture Two" - millions more who seem engaged in their own personal spiritual pilgrimages, ignoring or even boldly challenging traditional control. The "two cultures of American Catholicism" exist everywhere. They're present in almost every family, in every parish, & at every level of the institutional Church. Kennedy writes of "Culture One" that it was "once so extraordinarily powerful & unified that everyone over a certain age has almost identical memories of it." In contrast, "Culture Two" believers "find their intellectual, religious, & artistic stimulation well beyond the tightly guarded borders of this quaint Catholic enclave... They no longer need 'Catholic' books or films... They are much more at home in the world in general than their parents were permitted to be." Kennedy - a perceptive observer who deeply identifies with what he sees as the best in both of these "Catholic cultures" - believes the outcome will not be schism. Instead, he envisions a Church that is enriched with more choices, more creativity, more appreciation for roots, & a greater vision for the future.