A Foreign and Wicked Institution?: The Campaign Against Convents in Victorian England - Hardcover

Kollar, Rene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1498252648 ISBN 13: 9781498252645

Publisher: Pickwick Publications, 2011

Synopsis

Many in Victorian England harbored deep suspicion of convent life. In addition to looking at anti-Catholicism and the fear of both Anglican and Catholic sisterhoods that were established during the nineteenth century, this work explores the prejudice that existed against women in Victorian England who joined sisterhoods and worked in orphanages and in education and were comitted to social work among the urban poor. Women, according to some of these critics, should remain passive in matters of religion. Nuns, however, did play an important role in many areas of life in nineteenth-century England and faced hostility from many who felt threatened and challenged by members of female religious orders. The accomplishments of the nineteenth-century nuns and the opposition they overcame should serve as both an example and encouragement to all men and women committed to the Gospel. ""I highly recommend this work; it is essential and fascinating reading for all those interested in the history of English prejudice--especially on those inflammatory topics of the (Roman) Catholic Church, monasticism, and the emancipation of women."" --Hugo Meynell author of Redirecting Philosophy and Postmodernism and the New Enlightenment (2000) ""In 2010, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. hosted the exhibit, 'Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America.' It was a must-see testament to their magnificent accomplishments. A Foreign and Wicked Institution? by Fr. Rene Kollar is further testament to the role Catholic and Anglican sisters fulfilled in Victorian England. Despite outstanding accomplishments, they confronted bigotry and scandals within their ranks. This book is a must-read for a deeper understanding of the joys and pains of institutions devoted to God's work.""   --Eugene Hemrick Columnist for the Catholic News Service Director of the Institute for the Renewal of the Priesthood Director of Institutional Research at Washington Theological Union ""Rene Kollar focuses on congregations of religious women in this clear, concise examination of popular anti-Catholicism. He deftly interweaves their confessions with Catholic attempts to explain the true nature of religious life, and to discredit their opponents. Demands that society correct these atrocities through abolition or control threatened not only the sisterhoods themselves, but the Roman Church. In separate but interrelated chapters, Kollar considers the legends, the stories, the lies and the works of Roman and Anglican sisterhoods. Neither blind to faults nor ignorant of abuses, Kollar writes with an eye on the present in which a way of life is again judged by the faults of a few."" --T. M. McCoog, S.J.  Fordham University ""Using a rich variety of sources, Rene Kollar has given us excellent essays on the struggles for the establishment of Anglican and Roman Catholic religious orders in Victorian England against social, and mostly male, prejudice, suspicion and ignorance. The essays deal with particular episodes and contribute color and depth to our understanding of religious prejudice in Victorian England and the sheer persistence and resilience of these women of faith. Richly textured, thoroughly researched and elegantly written."" --The Revd Dr Bruce Kaye Editor, The Journal of Anglican Studies Fr. Rene Kollar is a Benedictine monk and a Professor of History at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He has written extensively on nineteenth- and twentieth-century English ecclesiastical history.

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Review

'The book contains many intriguing details concerning individual communities and their members ... Kollar's book can be commended as an admirable guide to the extent to how far, in spite of the valuable work carried out in most convents, anti-Catholic prejudice could take their critics.'
--Dr Bernard Palmer in The Church Times February 10 2012

This book presents a facet of Victorian life which, like the convents themselves, is often terra incognita; it opens a window on a commonly overlooked aspect of the social and religious life of the Victorian era. --Mary C. Treacy, Women s History Magazine, Issue 70, Summer 2012

"...[A foreign and Wicked Institution? The Campaign Against Convents in Victorian England] is a helpful contribution to learning, and discloses some fine scholarly judgements..." --Edward Norman, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol.64/1, January 2013.

...There are some nuggets of information which interest or amuse or both... --Michael Tait, Reviews in Religion & Theology, Volume 20, Issue 2, March 2013.

"...Readers will benefit from Kollar's wide reading and his wealth of knowledge of printed archival sources as well as nineteenth-century literature. There is much in these essays that is important for those who are interested in understanding the Victorians, the depths of anti-Catholicism and anti-Tractarianism and how women religious were seen as threatening the status quo. This volume is a welcome addition to the history of women religious..." --Carmen M. Mangion, Recusant History, Vol. 31-3, May 2013

About the Author

Fr. Rene Kollar is a Benedictine monk and a Professor of History at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He has written extensively on nineteenth- and twentieth-century English ecclesiastical history.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1498252648
• ISBN 13: 9781498252645
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320