Global Catholicism in the Twenty-first Century

Introduction: Catholicism and the Sociology of Religion.- Catholicism, Secularism, and Modernity in the Twenty-first Century.- Digital Catholicism: The Internet and the Vatican.- Social Theory, Theology, Secularization, and World Youth Day.- Catholicism and Capitalism: Ideology, Faith, and Power.- Women and the Catholic Church.- Catholicism and Judaism after Vatican II: The Church's Response to the Shoah.- Islamic-Catholic Relations in an Age of Terror.- The Church in the Americas: Religion and Two Divided Continents.- Conclusion: The Catholic Church in a Changing World.

Andrew P. Lynch holds an MA (Hons) from the University of Auckland and a PhD from the University of Sydney, both in Sociology. He researches in the area of the sociology of religion and specializes in the study of contemporary Catholicism, with a focus on the Catholic Church as a global religious institution and its activities in local settings. He is also interested in the interconnections between the Church and modernity and the tensions and outcomes that this relationship is having on church and society. His PhD thesis examined the Catholic Church and social change in the 1960s with an emphasis on Vatican II and its project of updating the Church. He has published a number of academic journal articles and book chapters focusing on global Catholicism from a sociological perspective, which includes studies on subjects such as modern monasticism, Catholicism and the internet, religious freedom in China, and the Church and the public sphere. He has also published book reviews on studies in religion for the International Sociological Association (ISA), and has presented at a number of international conferences on the subject of religion and Catholicism in modern times. He is a member of the ISA's Research Committee 22 on the Sociology of Religion, and other associations. He currently teaches sociology at the University of Sydney and at the Australian Catholic University.