© Columbia University Press
Tracing the Sign of the Cross: Sexuality, Mourning, and the Future of American Catholicism
May, 2009
Cloth, 216 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14702-6
$45.00
/ £30.95
"[T]he book will have some real and lasting use as a primary source" — Una Cadegan, American Catholic StudiesUniversity of Dayton
"Tracing the Sign of The Cross is one of only a handful of books on American Catholicism that goes beyond being simply competent, well-executed, and well-written to open up the possibility of our rethinking what it means to be a Catholic in America." — David Harrington Watt, Temple University, author of Bible Carrying Christians: Conservative Protestants and Social Power
"Marian Ronan has a strong, unflinching, often lyrical voice, and she moves with grace through questions that are frequently daunting in their own right and rarely posed together. Although deeply informed by literary and psychoanalytic theory, as well as Catholic history and theology, Ronan wears her learning lightly enough so that readers who would not normally encounter such texts will still find her work accessible and engaging. An important book." — Tracy Fessenden, author of Culture and Redemption: Religion, the Secular, and American Literature
"Tracing the Sign of the Cross is a genuinely pathbreaking book, offering an innovative interpretation of the worldview of contemporary American Catholics. Through a daring combination of literary approaches and psychoanalysis, it offers valuable insight into the agendas, conscious or otherwise, of so many of those engaged in the culture wars that have raged within American Catholicism in recent decades." — Philip Jenkins, author of Pedophiles and Priests and The New Anti-Catholicism
"By finding the sign of the cross in post-Vatican II American Catholicism, Marian Ronan makes important discoveries for Catholic theology. Theologians will be challenged and engaged by her book." — Margaret O'Gara, professor, SSJT Chair in Systematic Theology, University of St. Michael's College, Toronto