Catholics and Contraception

As Americans rethought sex in the twentieth century, the Catholic Church's teachings on the divisive issue of contraception in marriage were in many ways central. In a fascinating history, Leslie Woodcock Tentler traces changing attitudes: from the...

Leslie Woodcock Tentler is Professor of History at Catholic University of America. Her books include Seasons of Grace: A History of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit and Wage-Earning Women: Industrial Employment and Family Life in the United States, 1900-1930.

Tentler shows the larger forces of cultural change and the development of mores which would impact views of sex and sexuality beyond simply the contraception question/issue. Her work brings together an incredible amount of research into the archives of dioceses and religious orders, especially those who preached the once popular parish missions which were a bulwark of support for the Church's position on birth control.... This book deserves to be read not only by historians, but by all theology students, clergy, bishops, and everyone who wishes to have a better understanding of how the constant Tradition of the Church develops in this critical area.

Readers of this critical study of American Catholics' reception of their church's doctrinal position on contraception will be astounded at the scope and depth of the author's analysis.... The American context, especially in the decades from 1870 to 1930, presents a number of special cultural difficulties, such as a desire to embrace scientific discovery about the body, upholding the primacy of human liberty, and a semi-puritanical disdain for public discussion of sex—all of which led mainline Protestant Americans toward private contraceptive practice. Catholics often publicly broke with such mores, but gradually capitulated, especially after the 1960s. Tentler's study does yeoman work in explaining why. Highly recommended.

Tentler's account is thoroughly researched, well written, and makes good use of clergy interviews and Catholic archives and publications.

Jenelle Williams Paris:

In Catholics and Contraception: An American History, Leslie Woodcock Tentler treats American Catholic culture across the 20th century.... Tentler says, lay people today are exercising individual moral authority without communal shaping influences.... In her view, even Catholics who disagree with the Church's teaching on contraception want pastoral leadership and a corporate identity as Catholic, not just American. 'Desires like these,' Tentler concludes, 'ought to form the substance of ongoing communal reflection' of conversations that involve every constituency in the church. How ironic, not to say tragic, that birth control gets in the way.

Catholics and Contraception is a welcome exploration of the Catholic discourse on birth control over the century leading up to 1968. Tentler's work is thorough, nuanced, and engaging. Her argument about the centrality of birth control practices in lay lives and the significance of Humane Vitae in the church's history is so persuasive and well supported that her work stands as a definitive history of contraception and a major contribution to our understanding of the broader American Catholic history in the twentieth century.

John Bancroft, author of Human Sexuality and Its Problems and former director of The Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, and Reproduction:

The Catholic Church is important to a large segment of the human race, yet it is in crisis because of issues relating to sex and reproduction. Leslie Woodcock Tentler's book takes a historical look at the Church's doctrines concerning contraception, how these have produced a serious divide between the Church and the Catholic laity, and how they have split the Catholic clergy. As we enter the twenty-first century, the importance of promoting responsibility in our sexual lives is greater than ever. Can the Catholic Church find a way to promote sexual responsibility and at the same time acknowledge the considerable benefits that responsible sex brings to Catholic men and women?

Robert Orsi, Harvard Divinity School:

Leslie Woodcock Tentler brings great subtlety and a compassionate, mature discernment to the difficult history of American Catholicism's encounter with modernity. She has an extraordinary ability to represent the everyday lived experience of Catholics in vivid, textured detail which encompasses both clerical and popular practice and understanding. Catholics and Contraception is compelling, distinguished, brilliantly researched, and completely engaging.