AMXTIAN 816
American Catholic History
Aaron Lawson Griffith
Description from DukeHub
This course will explore the history of American Catholicism, from the colonial period to Pope Leo XIV. Students will read primary and secondary sources related to various turning points, figures, and communities in this wide-ranging history, including Spanish and French Catholic encounters with Native Americans; European Catholic immigration in the nineteenth century; the emergence of Latino and Black Catholic traditions; debates and controversies over Americanization, labor, nativism, gender, and sexual abuse; and shifts in American Catholic belief and practices (such as the fading of confession from the 1970s on). Prerequisite: CHURHST 750, 751, and AMXTIAN 756 or equivalents
Skills
No skill passed the confidence bar. Weak matches go to review instead of this page: an AI pass that has to quote the description, then a person.
AI-resilient: 1 of 5
- No: Physical, lab or field work
- No: Live work with people
- No: Judgment someone is accountable for
- No: A craft you practice with your hands or body
- Yes: Small, in-person format · seminar, 15 seats per section
The checks lean on Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025), which found generative AI applies least to physical work and hands-on work with people. A signal, not a promise. How the score works
More in AMXTIAN
- Everything Happens: Themes in American Religion AMXTIAN 701
- Evangelical Traditions in America AMXTIAN 809