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Founding Father: John J. Wynne, S.J. and the Inculturation of American Catholicism in the Progressive Era, written by Michael F. Lombardo

2018; Brill; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1163/22141332-00502005-18

2214-1332

Thomas Rzeznik,

Catholicism and Religious Studies

is not particularly well known, even among scholars.Yet his contributions to Catholic intellectual life during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were substantial.As founding editor of both the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907) and Jesuit magazine, America (1909), he helped shape Catholic thought and expand access to knowledge about the faith.He played a key role in spreading Catholic ideas and ideals to an American Catholic population hungry for information about the faith and poised to assert itself on the American scene.In this fascinating book, Michael Lombardo brings renewed attention to Wynne's life and career, situating him within the context of Progressive Era America and its tremendous transformations.He demonstrates how Wynne negotiated the social and intellectual currents of his time, embracing some and challenging others.He rejected pragmatic philosophy, for instance, in favor of Catholic neo-Scholasticism, whose certainties he saw as an antidote to skepticism and subjectivities of the age.Yet he embraced many elements of modern thought, including the social sciences.He likewise supported religious liberty and the separation of church and state at a time when those principles received renewed condemnations from the Vatican.How does one make sense of Wynne's complexity?Lombardo does so by reading Wynne's life through the lens of "theological inculturation."He uses the term to refer to the "process of engagement between the Christian Gospel and a particular culture" (10).In this case, he sees in Wynne an attempt to promote a "rapprochement between Catholic theology and American culture" (14).More specifically, he shows how Wynne sought to accommodate Catholicism to Progressive methods and outlooks, while simultaneously upholding Catholicism as an agent of transformation that would correct the errors and deficiencies of American society.That this task of inculturation was undertaken by a Jesuit comes as no surprise to Lombardo, given the Society's history of missionary activity and cultural engagement.Because of its analytical focus on inculturation, Lombardo's work is not a straightforward biography of Wynne.It does not trace the life of its subject from birth to death as might be expected.Rather, Lombardo spends his first two chapters laying out the context for Wynne's career with discussions of the Progressive Era and us Catholicism during the period, respectively.Only then does he turn to Wynne himself.