Dr. Mary Ellen Konieczny is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 2005. Her book The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work, and Religion among American Catholics (Oxford University Press 2013) is an ethnography of liberal and conservative Catholic parishes that examines how religion and family life support and shape Catholic Americans’ moral and political polarization.

The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work and Religion among American Catholics

Catholic Parishes, Commitment & Belonging, Culture Frame, Families, Gender, Interviews, Participant Observation

My book The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work and Religion among American Catholics, was the product of a comparative ethnographic project which began with the simple question:  Why are contemporary conflicts about the family—such as abortion, women’s social roles, same-sex marriage, and contraception—so emotional, and so resonant among American Catholics?  We know that the media and…