R531 Catholicism: From Trent to Vatican II (3 cr) MW 9:30-10:45 SY037
(Furey) **Meets with R430.

Today it can be difficult to imagine what Catholicism looked like and
felt like before Vatican II.  But prior to this dramatic moment in the
1960s, Catholicism was shaped by a tumultuous four hundred year period
- a period stretching from the Council of Trent in the 1540s to the
Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.  During this long history of a
confrontation between Catholicism and modernity, the Catholic Church
both adapted to and decisively rejected developments associated with
Protestantism, capitalism, and secularism. In order to understand this
complex history of Roman Catholicism from the 1540s to the 1960s, this
course will focus on issues raised in three distinctive historical
moments: In examining sixteenth-century Catholicism we will
concentrate on the relationship between institutional decrees and
popular beliefs and practices; in the nineteenth-century context we
will look closely at the conflict between the Church and modern
political liberalism; and we will conclude by analyzing how the
twentieth-century Church responded to the social challenges of
capitalism and globalization.