[Excerpt]

“Bruce deftly manages multiple axes of inquiry and data across six chapters, probing how place and purpose—the two organizational principles shaping the experience of American Catholic life—interact…[…]…The work of Parish and Place opens up a door for important further pastoral and ecclesiological investigation. In these fragmented times, it is genuinely difficult to discern how best to support people and communities across differences while also building inclusive communities. Bruce’s study provides valuable information and interpretative frameworks for continuing conversations about how best to deal productively with diversity and fragmentation within the Catholic Church. Readers interested in the promise and problems involved in personal parishes will be provoked to think more deeply and critically about these important issues.”

Thanks to Julia H. Brumbaugh for this review of my book Parish and Place: Making Room for Diversity in the American Catholic Church in Reading Religion. Read the full summary and review.