Charles T. Strauss, Ph.D. associate professor of history at Mount St. Mary’s University, has been awarded the Louisville Institute’s Grant for Researchers for his project, Catholics and the Nuclear Age, 1945–1990. The book project examines how American Catholics responded to the moral and political challenges of the nuclear era, from Hiroshima and the early Cold War through the debates over nuclear weapons and nuclear power in the late twentieth century.
Strauss’s research asks how bishops, intellectuals, lay leaders, and ordinary parishioners understood the promises and perils of the nuclear age, and how Catholic teaching and activism engaged questions of war, peace, energy, and human dignity.
The project will be the first of its kind to bring Catholic voices fully into the history of the nuclear age, showing how papal encyclicals, episcopal letters, Catholic activists, and Catholic laity shaped national debates over deterrence and energy.
During his upcoming sabbatical, Strauss plans to work in archives in Washington, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Notre Dame, where he will consult diocesan records, bishops’ papers, and other historical collections related to Catholic responses to nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. He will also conduct interviews with retired Catholic engineers, plant workers, and parishioners whose lives were shaped by the nuclear industry.
With support from the Mount and The Louisville Institute, Strauss is working to advance scholarship that offers historical insight into the ethical challenges of modern technology.
The Louisville Institute's Grant for Researchers enables ecclesially-engaged academics and scholarly religious leaders to conduct research that contributes to the vitality of Christianity in North America. Grants of up to $55,000 support projects that address Christian faith and life, the practice of ministry, and/or the work of religious institutions. Louisville Institute is funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and based at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.