An Analysis Of Syncretization Of American Catholic And Protestant Societies During The First Half Of 20th Century

American catholics have had a long journey in the U.S. For them there is a remarkable change from initially being hated to be accepted and appreciated by the protestants now. The change is not a process of "melting into something" as people commonly think. As to the relationship between the catholic society and the protestant society in America, it's more suitable to describe the change as "syncretizing" than "melting", because there is no target to "be melted " in the American polynary society. Further more, the American catholics never lose their own characteristics, religion and belief, they still identify themselves as a special religion group. With the whole society changing, the catholic society has also been syncretizing with the protestant society. This is what we will discuss in this dissertation.Starting form "the syncretization", we will find two questions that should be asked:1. Why the syncretization between American catholics and protestants could happen? How did it happen?2. What factors affected the syncretization? How did they work?To answer these questions, we'll focus on the first half of the 20th century, for there were many historical events to be observed and discussed during this time. The main contents of this dissertation are:Part I puts forward the question of syncretization between catholics and protestants, discusses the meaning of "syncretization" and answers the question: why the catholics have chosen "syncretization"? Part II analyzes the catholic's personal self-identification, finds the premise and the basis of syncretization and discusses the reason how the premise and the basis has come into being.Part III observes the catholic society and their activities in economic affairs, finds the influences of these activities, and evaluates the process of the "syncretization" in the economic area.Part IV discusses the activities of catholics in the politics, especially those in some prominent events, and analyzes some problems such as the church school and so on. By which we could recognize the process of "syncretization" in political area.Part V, based on the above discussion, will summarize all the measures and activities by American catholics, and analyzes their causes and influences.The conclusions are that the American religion situation, the gui-dance of the catholic church, the right self-identification and suitable methods which the catholics adopted have played an important role in the syncretization; Vatican's well-meant standpoint towards American catholics is also very important. Further more, pluralism of American society and the current trends of secularizing and individualizing are the needful conditions for the syncretization.