Identity, politics and piety : the intellectual remaking of Catholicism in the Archdiocese of Glasgow 1918-1965

• Main Author: Williamson, Clifford
• Published: University of Strathclyde 2000
• Subjects: 282; Catholic community
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.248318

Traditionally, the historical study of the Catholic community in the Archdiocese of Glasgow has centred on the building of the Catholic community and the implications of its ethnic background. Little or no attention has been made to the intellectual contribution of Catholics to the questions of identity, Catholic politics and devotional trends. Similarly, the previous study of Catholicism in Scotland has been based on local issues with little or no reference to the place of Scottish Catholicism in the mainstream of European developments in the Roman Catholic Church. This work seeks to redress the balance through a comprehensive examination of four themes. Firstly, the impact of Catholic social teaching on the senior Catholic lay organisation, the Catholic Union of the Archdiocese of Glasgow. Secondly, an examination of the distinctive contribution of Catholics in the Archdiocese to piety and devotion, focussing on the Lourdes Grotto at Carfm and the Legion of Mary. The third theme i s an assessment of the role played by the Glasgow Circle of the Newman Association, in the post Second World War years, in the mobilisation of the Catholic intelligentsia, through the development of a devolved Scottish Council of the Newman Association and the promotion of reform within the Catholic Church leading up to the Second Vatican Council in 1962. The fourth theme is a discussion of the writing of Scottish history and the contributions made by Catholic scholars to a revision of the orthodoxies on the role of Catholicism in Scotland. Through the examination of these themes, this work argues that there was a coherent attempt to remake the image and character of Catholicism in the Archdiocese of Glasgow, which had implications for the overall standing of Catholicism in Scotland. It is argued that, far from being divorced from trends in Catholicism in continental Europe, developments in Scottish Catholicism, though distinctive, must be seen in the light of changes in Catholic thinking in Europe.