Revolutionary Faiths: Politics and Religion in Late Eighteenth-Century Italy, 1796-1799, ISIH Conference, «The Rethinking of Religious Belief in the Making of Modernity», American University in Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, May 30-June 1, 2017 (original) (raw)

2014 - „Historians of religions and the space of law“, in: Salvo Randazzo (ed.), Religione e Diritto Romano Religione e Diritto Romano La cogenza del rito, Trecase 2014,

What we do see is a spread of rationality or, more cautiously, systematization, as I have argued for republican religion in a recent book. This would not be a natural drive towards the rational. Rather, it is a form of appropriating power for everyday authority and to counter social and economic power by procedural coherency and resources like rational argument or the divine, both only partially within the reach of force. For Romans, the appeal of Greek culture and the universality of Greek cultures must have been the single most favourable conditions for such arguments. The everyday usage of instrumental religion for illness and risk must have been the single most important precondition for religious authority. All that remains to be tested.

Reformation and religious crisis in Italy and Eastern Europe. Open questions and new research perspectives, Introduzione alla sezione monografica La Riforma tra Italia ed Europa. Questioni aperte e nuove prospettive storiografiche, "Rivista di storia del Cristianesimo, XVI, 1/2019, pp. 3-10

Jean-Pierre Chantin, De sectes en hérésie. Etapes d'une réflexion sur la dissidence religieuse à travers les âges (Régis Ladous), 269; Angelo Turchini, «Monumenta Borromaica, v. Per gli «acta conciliorum» (1565-1582) della Provincia ecclesiastica di Milano: svolgimento e materiali dall'usura alle feste su Milano e le altre realtà diocesane (Federico Terzi), 270; Vincenzo Lavenia, Dio in uniforme. Cappellani, catechesi cattolica e soldati in età moderna (Sante Lesti), 274; Paul Chopelin (éd.), Gouverner une Église en Révolution. Histoires et mémoires de l'épiscopat constitutionnel (Francesco Dei), 279; Garry Sparks (ed.

'The Clerical Response to a Totalitarian Political Religion: La Civiltà Cattolica and Italian Fascism', in: Journal of Contemporary History 46/2, 2011, p. 245-70

This paper offers a close reading of the discourse on Italian fascism within the authoritative Italian Jesuit periodical La Civiltà Cattolica. The author shows that, when confronted with the fascist movement, La Civiltà Cattolica made no moves to oppose the regime, instead positioning itself so as to negotiate with and accommodate the fascist rhetoric. This decision was driven in part by the close alignment between the politics of Catholicism and fascism, and further fostered by the absence of a viable alternative political power. The essay also illustrates the manner in which Catholic intellectuals intuitively perceived some aspects of fascist totalitarianism and the ‘sacralisation of politics’ as threatening, particularly when confronted with manifestations of what was termed ‘political heresy’, along with certain features of fascist associationalism. However, despite their concerns no explicit rupture between Church and regime ever eventuated; on the contrary, some accounts imply an intended merger, however unstable it may have proven, between the ‘religious’ and ‘totalitarian’ goals of both parties.

Doctrine, Promise, and Peace: The Role of Religion in the Rise of Fascist Italy

One must remember how large a role Catholicism played in Italian history, and this role was still quite present in the early twentieth century; this was very well understood by fascist movement, and thus collaboration with the church was sought, both to solve the ‘Roman Question’ that left the sovereignty of the Vatican uncertain as well as to support the movement in general. There were issues that could not be overcome in both ventures, however the dual power of the fascist regime and the Catholic church certainly made an impression upon the Italian people; religion was certainly not the most important contributor to the fascist movement, but the support of the church was necessary to further the cause. It is important when discussing the connections between fascism and religion to discuss the numerous ways in which religion was represented and implemented within the fascist regime, so this essay will be separated into three different sections: political religion, the ‘Roman Question’, and clerical fascism.