Preaching with Their Lives: Dominicans on Mission in the United States After 1850

About the Book

This volume tells the little-known story of the Dominican Family—priests, sisters, brothers, contemplative nuns, and lay people—and integrates it into the history of the United States. Starting after the Civil War, the book takes a thematic approach through twelve essays examining Dominican contributions to the making of the modern United States by exploring parish ministry, preaching, health care, education, social and economic justice, liturgical renewal and the arts, missionary outreach and contemplative prayer, ongoing internal formation and renewal, and models of sanctity. It charts the effects of the United States on Dominican life as well as the Dominican contribution to the larger U.S. history. When the country was engulfed by wave after wave of immigrants and cities experienced unchecked growth, Dominicans provided educational institutions; community, social, and religious centers; and health care and social services. When epidemic disease hit various locales, Dominicans responded with nursing care and spiritual sustenance. As the United States became more complex and social inequities appeared, Dominicans cried out for social and economic justice. Amidst the ugliness and social dislocation of modern society, Dominicans offered beauty through the liturgical arts, the fine arts, music, drama, and film, all designed to enrich the culture. Through it all, the Dominicans cultivated their own identity as well, undergoing regular self-examination and renewal.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Dominicans on Mission
Jeffrey M. Burns 1
Dominicans in the World
A Joyful Spectrum of Service: The Order of Preachers in New York
James T. Carroll 15
"In the Midst of Sorrow and Death": The Work of the
Dominican Sisters in Tennessee during the Yellow Fever Epidemics
Margaret M. McGuinness 43
Reclaiming the Sinsinawa Dominicans' Legacy of Catholic Progressive Education
Ellen Skerrett and Janet Welsh, OP 65
Walking in Solidarity: Dominican Women and the Struggle
for Economic Justice in the Modern United States
Heath W. Carter 99
A Corporate Stance for Social Justice: The Dominican Sisters
of San Rafael, California, and the 1980s Sanctuary Movement
Cynthia Taylor 130
Aggiornamento on Campus: William Blase Schauer, OP, and
the Las Cruces Experiment
Christopher J. Renz, OP 157
Being Dominican
Call and Response: American Dominican Artists and Vatican II
Elizabeth Michael Boyle, OP 191
Afire with the Itinerant Spirit: Paradigm Shifts in the Foreign Missions
Donna Maria Moses, OP 215
Dominican Monasteries: Ever Ancient, Ever New
Cecilia Murray, OP 242
More Than a Mustard Seed: The Parable Conference for
Dominican Life and Mission
Diane Kennedy, OP 269
From Teacher to Tutor: Adapting a Historic Ministry of
Education to Contemporary Realities
Arlene I. Bachanov 294
Samuel Mazzuchelli, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, and the Making of American Saints
Kathleen Sprows Cummings 316
List of Contributors 345
Index 347

About the Author :
Margaret M. McGuinness (Edited By)
Margaret M. McGuinness is Professor of American Catholicism at La Salle University. She is the author of Neighbors and Missionaries: A History of the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine and Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America.
Jeffrey M. Burns (Edited By)
Jeffrey M. Burns is Director of the Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture at the University of San Diego and Director of the Academy of American Franciscan History. He is the author of Disturbing the Peace: A History of the Christian Family Movement, 1949–1974.


Review :
Noteworthy, as part of Fordham's "Catholic Practice in North America" series, Preaching with Their Lives adds indispensable scholarly understanding to Catholic studies in general and, in particular, to the Dominican Order's charism of contemplation and mission in the U.S. after 1850. Among this volume's strengths are the seasoned scholars and other dedicated researchers that the editors, McGuinness. . .-- "Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum" Preaching with Their Lives makes a valuable contribution to the study of Catholic religious life in the United States. The essays in this collection reveal the wide-ranging ways that members of the Dominican order have borne witness to the Word, from education and parish ministry to social activism and the arts. They bring together the story of women and men of prayer and service, attuned to both the internal transformations taking place within the Dominican order as well as their remarkable engagement with the wider world. With this volume, the Dominicans receive the scholarly attention and recognition they so rightly and richly deserve.---Thomas F. Rzeznik, Seton Hall University