Saving the heartland : Catholic missionaries in rural America, 1920-1960 / Jeffrey D. Marlett.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-228) and index.

Introduction: Catholic Rural Life? -- 1. Fertile Land and Fertile Souls: The Catholic Rural Life Movement and Its Antiurban Theology -- Reforming Rural America -- Antiurbanism among Catholic Agrarians -- Saving the Land -- Freedom's Rural Sanctuary -- Salvation through Fertility -- Anchored by the Family Farm -- Spiritual and Physical Remedies from Bio-dynamic Farming -- Shortcomings of Catholic Agrarianism -- 2. Catholic Colonization Projects in Rural America -- Early Efforts in Catholic Communitarianism -- Improving Rural Catholic Settlement -- "Back to the Land!" in the Depression -- Catholic Worker Farm Communes -- Redemptive Suffering on Two Farm Communes -- Farm Communes and Catholic Culture -- 3. Part of the Scenery: Catholic Experiences in Rural America -- Catholic Settlement Revisited -- Transformations in American Rural Life -- Blending In of Rural Catholics -- Catholic Agrarianism and Rural Catholics -- 4. Muddy Roads and Rolling Stones: Catholic Motor Missions -- Origins and Development of Catholic Motor Missions -- Motor Missions' Holy Simplicity -- Catholic Ambivalence Concerning the Motor Missions -- Harvesting the Success of Motor Mission Efforts -- Broadened Horizons for American Catholics -- Motor Mission Catholicism as American Religion. Conclusion: The Wheat and Chaff of Catholic Agrarianism.

Exploring the Catholic agrarian agenda and the theological vision that motivated it, the author interprets the influence of prominent twentieth-century Catholics such as radio priest Charles Coughlin, converts Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, European Catholic apologists G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, and Popes Pius X, XI and XII. Also brings to light for the first time the work of religious leagues, street preachers and the priests and nuns who roamed the countryside to spread religious and rural reform through loudspeakers and tent meetings. Striving to make their beliefs applicable in the familiar realms of work and family, Catholic agrarians played a pivotal role in the development of the American Midwest and the twentieth-century Catholic Church. This first comprehensive picture of the Catholic missionary experience in rural America reveals a new dimension of American religious history.