E-Books →The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism, Volume V Recapturing the Apostolate of the Laity, 1914–2021 (PDF)

Alongside the twentieth century's designation as an era of technological innovation, war, peace, globalization, decolonization and liberation, this period has also been designated 'the People's Century'. Viewed through the lens of the Catholic church in Britain and Ireland, these same dynamics are explored within thematic, synoptic chapters by leading scholars.
As a century characterized by the rise, or better renewal of the apostolate of the laity, this edited collection traces the struggles to reconcile tradition, re-evaluate hierarchical authority, adapt to social and educational mobility, as well as to adjudicate serious challenges from outside and within―including inflammatory biopolitics and clerical sexual abuse―to religious belief and the legitimacy of the Church as an institution.
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