Catholic Fundamentalism in America

by Mark S. Massa S.J. S.J.

Genres: Religion

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2025

Reviews

[J. Hord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fr. Massa has done a wonderful job tracing the roots of Catholic Fundamentalism in general through the examples of several 20th century Protestant and Catholic movements. He begins with a brief overview of the Protestant fundamentalist movement that began after the first world war. With that, he offers a convincing theory of the assumptions and fears of that drove that movement. The remainder of the book documents several Catholic movements of the mid 20th century to illustrate how they resemble Protestant fundamentalism or how they differ. In the process he identifies how the movements were, in reality, both clinging to prior paradigms of science and faith that were under scruitiny. In the process, he acknowledges his debt to Thomas Kuhn's classic work, _The Structure of Scientific Revolutions_.

Both forms, Fr. Massa explains, seem to have a belief in the possibility of returning to some primitive age when their doctrine was pure and undefiled by the culture that surrounded it. But, as he demonstrates so well in each instance, this primitivist thinking is an ahistorical fallacy. No such time or faith ever existed.

The Catholic form of fundamentalism touches on another dilemma. The word Catholic means "universal," it is intended in the big tent, all are welcome view. And Fr. Massa shows us that the true opposite of Catholicism is not Protestantism but sectarianism. Protestantism is, indeed, sectarian in nature - each new movement a spinoff of an earlier movement. But there have always been sectarianists in the Catholic tradition - movements of small groups that attempt to separate themselves from the world and the faith in order to find a more pure gathering of true believers. The difference is that these sectarians tend to claim they are the true representatives of the Catholic faith and not the magisterium. No longer giving room to the 'less serious Catholics,' they see themselves as above the magesterium.

There was a time when Catholics would have identified in one of two groups: faithful Catholics or lapse Catholics. And the church has always included both - being open to learning from our culture and adapting doctrinal development to grow with the times. As John Newman said, "to live is to change." But the new fundamentalist form of Catholicism sees only faithful Catholics and 'liberal' Catholics, adopting political terminology to force a dichotomy of true and false Catholics. Protestant fundamentalists had adopted the same political categories to define their 'pure' movements as compared to the less pure or even heretical members of their denominations. It is no surprise that both these movements have gravitated more and more to American conservative politics.

The Catholic form of fundamentalism challenges the authority of the magisterium and attempts to shape the church to their demands. Ironically, doing so sacrifices the very essence of how we define a Catholic. A faithful Catholic is one who is in communion with their bishop and, ultimately, the bishop of Rome. Stepping outside that paradigm, the fundamentalist becomes a law unto herself/himself; in essence, a sectarianist who denies the universality of the church.

This is a brief but important and enlightening work toward understanding this movement and the potential dangers of ignoring it. A must read for faithful Catholics, indeed.

[Andrew McNeely]

You can read my review, along with two colleagues’ reviews and a response from the author, at the link below:

https://rightingamerica.net/mark-mass...