John F. Kennedy and American Catholicism By: Lawrence H. Fuchs

The psychology of each of us is shaped to a considerable extent by our religious inheritance. How could it be otherwise? Religion deals with the ways in which men approach the fundamental questions of human existence: the nature of man, the purpose of life, the meaning of death, the relationship of man to man, to nature, and to mystery.

Because in the West we have tended to agree with the psalmist that God made man "a little lower than the angels" and "put all things under his feet," we usually have seen man as an active, rational being, attempting to control his environment. There are many other essential unities in what is often called the Judaic- Christian tradition. But there are differences, too, which are more than just nuances or subtleties in emphasis. There are differences over which men have denounced their brothers, fought their fathers, and bled their neighbors. In large measure, it was because of such differences that many of the earliest settlers came to America.