Christendom College history professor Dr. Christopher Shannon’s latest book, American Pilgrimage: A Historical Journey Through Catholic Life in a New World, was recently featured as part of Ignatius Press’ “Formed” podcast series. Hosted by Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., Joseph Pearce, and Vivian Dudro, the series tackled Shannon’s “wonderful” book in 10 parts, digging deep into the text for readers and listeners across the nation.
The book, which offers a new look at the history of the Catholic Church in the United States, has been garnering acclaim since its release, including from EWTN, Relevant Radio, Catholic World Report, and other news organizations. The podcast series from Ignatius is the first to delve into the book in full, going through its entirely in ten, 30-to-45-minute episodes published over the course of three months.
Shannon, who earned his Ph.D. from Yale, released his newest book last summer. The work distinguishes itself from countless other histories of the Church in the United States, which often suffer from an excess of either scholarly detachment or popular triumphalism. American Pilgrimage seeks instead to draw on the best of current scholarship to tell the story of the Church.
The Formed Book Club podcast began in 2019, with Ignatius Press Founder Fr. Fessio, Joseph Pearce (Director of Book Publishing at the Augustine Institute) and Vivian Dudro (Senior Editor at Ignatius Press) covering numerous books a year, including Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth, Robert Cardinal Sarah’s The Day is Now Far Spent, Saint Augustine’s The City of God, and now Shannon’s work as well.
American Pilgrimage was also recently featured on the First Things podcast, published by the acclaimed journal of religious and public life. Hosted by Mark Bauerlein, the show discussed Shannon’s book and how it illuminates the conversation of Catholicism in America.
Shannon is an associate professor of history at Christendom, teaching courses ranging from American Catholic History to Irish American History and the Medieval World. His books include Conspicuous Criticism: Tradition, the Individual, and Culture in Modern American Social Thought (Johns Hopkins, 1996), Bowery to Broadway: The American Irish in Classic Hollywood Cinema (University of Scranton Press, 2010), and with Christopher O. Blum, The Past as Pilgrimage: Narrative, Tradition and the Renewal of Catholic History (Christendom Press, 2014).
To order Shannon’s book, visit here.