Catholic Nuns and Sisters in a Secular Age

This is the first in-depth study of post-war female religious life. Rooted in the lived experiences of women religious in Britain, it explores British modernity, the social movements of the long 1960s and the Second Vatican Council, while acknowledging transnational relationships and global interconnectivities within and across national divides. -- .

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This is the first in-depth study of post-war female religious life. It draws on archival materials and a remarkable set of eighty interviews to place Catholic sisters and nuns at the heart of the turbulent 1960s, integrating their story of social change into a larger British and international one. Shedding new light on how religious bodies engaged in modernisation, it addresses themes such as the Modern Girl and youth culture, ‘1968’, generational discourse, post-war modernity, the voluntary sector and the women’s movement. Women religious were at the forefront of the Roman Catholic Church’s movement of adaptation and renewal towards the world. This volume tells their stories in their own words. -- .