Anne Hendershott's, Status Envy Evaluates the Politics of Catholic Higher Education

Feb. 10, 2009 - PRLog -- The debate within Catholic educational circles on whether church-sponsored colleges and universities perpetuate mediocrity by giving too great a priority to the moral development of students instead of scholarship and intellectual excellence continues in Status Envy by sociologist Anne Hendershott.  Hendershott asserts that part of the reason for the crisis of faith within Catholic colleges is due to status envy—the desire to compete with the top colleges in the country. The author questions whether even determined Catholic universities will be able to avoid the pressures to become more secular. Hendershott, who clearly sympathizes with the original mission of Catholic universities, leads the reader through the earliest signs that Catholic colleges were beginning to lose their way in the 1960s, up through the ongoing issues of feminism and homosexuality.

“Status Envy is a(n) . . . infuriating account of the failed 1960s-era experiment that tried to separate ‘Catholic identity’ from the morals and leadership of the Catholic Church. Only time will tell if this book chronicles the final chapter of US Catholic higher education, or the last hurrah of secularism before the more compelling vision of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI take hold.”   —Patrick J. Reilly, President and Founder, The Cardinal Newman Society

Anne Hendershott is professor of urban affairs at the King’s College in New York City. She is the author of The Politics of Abortion, The Politics of Deviance, and The Reluctant Caregivers: Learning to Care for a Loved One with Alzheimer’s.


To order a copy of Status Envy contact Transaction Publishers at 888-999-6778 or order online at http://www.transactionpub.com.  Editors interested in reviewing this book in a scholarly publication can forward the request along with company information to marketing@transactionpub.com.

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