tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post112248999496492531..comments2024-03-14T11:50:14.761-04:00Comments on DarwinCatholic: Reading GreeleyDarwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-1122614162354201572005-07-29T01:16:00.000-04:002005-07-29T01:16:00.000-04:00To those who consider themselves Catholic, yet do ...To those who consider themselves Catholic, yet do not submit to all the Church's teachings, such distinctions as Mass attendance, belief in <I> Transubstantiation </I> and acceptance of a non-contraceptive life-style are irrelavent. They view Catholicism in a similar manner as would a Protestant. They pick and choose what they want to believe as Truth, and make up (or borrow from elsewhere) the rest. To differentiate Catholics based upon these criteria and others that Darwin mentions in his post would be self-incriminating. So, they just "plead the 5th."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-1122589058556625622005-07-28T18:17:00.000-04:002005-07-28T18:17:00.000-04:00There's devinately a lot in the book which is out ...There's devinately a lot in the book which is out of date. Not only was it written in 1990, but a lot of Greeley's studies that he cites were done in the 70s and early 80s. So I actually skipped some of his "current" sections since I figured there was no point (and I was short on time).<BR/><BR/>The main thing I was interested in was to see what kind of work he'd done in modelling out the beliefs and demographics of the Catholic population. In essentials, I don't think that's changed very much in the last fifteen years. Still, in the end, I just wasn't that impressed with the analysis. I don't know if it's that I wanted something more technical, or Greeley and I just don't see eye to eye (quite possibly both) but I think that there <B>is</B> a lot of valuable work to be done in understanding more clearly what the make-up of modern American Catholicism is, in a way that is essentially demographic, but still takes into account the fact that the Church is fundamentally based on sacraments and beliefs, not self-identification.Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-1122579613416446582005-07-28T15:40:00.000-04:002005-07-28T15:40:00.000-04:00The way the world has turned upside-down, one can ...The way the world has turned upside-down, one can hardly look at 15-year-old statistics and sociology and take it seriously. I read the book back then and it was pretty interesting, but now I can't imagine it even is worth reading, it must have very little to do with what life is like now in the church.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com