Italian Fascism and German Nazism: Political Religions or Religious Politics? (original) (raw)

2017, CEU Doctoral Conference: Enchantments, Disenchantments, Re-enchantments | Center for Religious Studies

Debating upon the nature of fascism, certain scholars have proposed that this kind of movement should be considered a political religion, which arose in modern secularized – i.e. disenchanted – communities to fill a ‘void’ of beliefs within said societies, by attempting to engineer a process of ‘re-enchantment’ based on the “sacralization” of nation and race. My proposed contribution focuses on the academic discussions surrounding this interpretation. In addressing them, it problematizes the rigid division between the concepts of secularism and enchantment, in addition to questioning the degree to which interwar Europe underwent a process of secularization. My analysis focuses on Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, as they are the two most developed cases of fascist mobilization and regime-building. They thus represent the most suitable case studies for a comprehensive assessment of fascism as a political phenomenon. I mainly consider the following questions: whether fascists strove to create a political religion and whether their followers adhered to fascism in view of its appeal as a ‘new sect’. To adequately tackle these issues, I debate whether the religious ‘tone’ of fascism is ascribable to a new political style or to a sacralization of politics and whether, in turn, this sacralization was conceived by fascists as a core element of their totalitarian political project. I look in detail at the relationship between fascist regimes and established churches, in addition to the religious views of Italian and German fascist leaders and activists. I also analyze the meaning ascribed by these actors to their collective rituals and their views on totalitarianism. In drawing my conclusions, I consider transcendent and functional understandings of organized religion. I make the case that fascism can be considered a political religion if contemplated from a functional perspective, in the Durkheimian sense. It should, nonetheless, be understood as a political ideology, operating through ‘religious politics’ – i.e. the rationalization of secular policies in ostensibly religious terms - if observed from a transcendent point of view on religion. Ultimately, I contend that, while fascist leaders consciously attempted to create a political religion, popular consent for fascism did not depend primarily on accepting this new faith.