The Catholic Church in State Politics: Negotiating Prophetic Demands and Political Realities - Tapa dura

David Yamane's book, The Catholic Church in State Politics, is an extraordinary, subtle, and intelligent analysis of a complex matter. It demonstrates conclusively that by and large the state Catholic conferences have worked out a way of representing religion in the public marketplace with skill, intelligence, and balance. -- Andrew M. Greeley, Best-selling author, and Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona and Research Associate with the National Opinion Re With its empirical focus on policy advocacy by state-level Catholic Conferences, The Catholic Church in State Politics fills in a long-felt scholarly gap for understanding American Catholicism and politics. It deserves to be widely read by sociologists of religion. Deftly written, Yamane's book will be of broader interest to those who study politics, secularization theory and religious organizational structures. Yamane shows how the dual structure of religious lobby groups ( relying not just on religious grounding but also on lay expertise) constrains and enables them to mesh religious legitimacy with secular competence and language, shielding them, thereby, from any overly narrow sectarian stance -- John A. Coleman S.J., Casassa Professor of Social Values, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles In this masterfully written book, David Yamane takes a close look at the functioning of 34-state level Catholic Bishops Confereances in the United States. * Journal Of Scientific Study Of Religion * An unanticipated byproduct of Vatican II and the devolution of government policy making from the federal level, state Catholic conferences are now where the action is in the Church's campaign to plant its banner in the secular public square. Yamane's lucid, insightful account of the development of state conferences and their pursuit of a distinctly countercultural policy agenda will prove a most valuable resource for students of U.S. Church history and contemporary American policy making. -- Dick Dowling, Executive Director, Maryland Catholic Conference

The political advocacy of the American Catholic Bishops at the state level is one of the Church's best-kept secrets. In this groundbreaking work, David Yamane reveals the rich history, accomplishments, and challenges of bishops and their lay colleagues in local politics. Through sociological analysis, up-to-date examples, and personal interviews, Yamane explains how the local Catholic advocacy organizations in thirty-three states and Washington, D.C., negotiate the tension between the prophetic demands of faith and the political realities of secular political institutions. The Catholic Church in State Politics invites readers to understand better the role of religion in the public square.