Until the 1980s the history of the Roman Catholic Church and Catholicism in modern Europe was mostly the preserve of the theologically and confessionally defined field of ‘church history’ or ‘ecclesiastic history’. Catholic historiography was sealed off from mainstream (North American and British) historiography, with nineteenth- and twentieth-century Catholicism seemingly little more than a backward-looking footnote in the dominant narrative of secular modernity and progress. In a 1991 review article David Blackbourn pointed out that ‘historians in the mainstream have commonly considered Catholicism, if they considered it at all, as a hopelessly obscurantist force at odds with the more serious isms that have shaped the modern age’. Within the same review, however, Blackbourn signaled the emergence of timid but nevertheless clear ‘signs of a change’ in the historiographical direction and a new interest in Catholic history.

New Perspectives on Twentieth-Century Catholicism / Forlenza, Rosario. - In: CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN HISTORY. - ISSN 0960-7773. - 28:4(2019), pp. 581-595. [10.1017/S0960777319000146]

New Perspectives on Twentieth-Century Catholicism

Forlenza, Rosario
2019

Abstract

Until the 1980s the history of the Roman Catholic Church and Catholicism in modern Europe was mostly the preserve of the theologically and confessionally defined field of ‘church history’ or ‘ecclesiastic history’. Catholic historiography was sealed off from mainstream (North American and British) historiography, with nineteenth- and twentieth-century Catholicism seemingly little more than a backward-looking footnote in the dominant narrative of secular modernity and progress. In a 1991 review article David Blackbourn pointed out that ‘historians in the mainstream have commonly considered Catholicism, if they considered it at all, as a hopelessly obscurantist force at odds with the more serious isms that have shaped the modern age’. Within the same review, however, Blackbourn signaled the emergence of timid but nevertheless clear ‘signs of a change’ in the historiographical direction and a new interest in Catholic history.
2019
New Perspectives on Twentieth-Century Catholicism / Forlenza, Rosario. - In: CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN HISTORY. - ISSN 0960-7773. - 28:4(2019), pp. 581-595. [10.1017/S0960777319000146]
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
CEH2019.pdf

Solo gestori archivio

Tipologia: Versione dell'editore
Licenza: DRM (Digital rights management) non definiti
Dimensione 218.23 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
218.23 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11385/192511
Citazioni
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact