Intellectual History of Liberal Catholicism in Western Europe, 1789-1870 - by Aude Attuel-Hallade (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This volume probes and deciphers the tensions and contradictions that underlie modern European Liberal Catholicism. Beginning with the French revolution and looking at dialogues between European 'public moralists', the book discusses the ways in which liberal Catholics loosened their bonds with religion, all the while relying on it. It reflects on how and why they promoted a post-revolutionary state and society based on religious dogma and morality, and what new liberal order and socio-political and religious models they proposed.

Beyond the analysis of the work of these Catholic intellectuals, the question of their conceiving a specific liberal approach through Catholicism is also investigated. More generally, it prompts a vital reappraisal of the political, ideological and philosophical pressures that the religious question caused in the redefinition of Western European post-revolutionary liberalism.

Review Quotes

"This book provides an important collection of historical studies, relevant to essential contemporary debates on the relation between religion and politics, the specific case of Catholicism, and the situation of European States in terms of liberal ideas and ideals in modern times. All authors are acknowledged experts on their chosen subjects." --Franck Lessay, Emeritus Professor, Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University, France

"[This book] offers a thought-provoking and scholarly rich account of the ideas and ironies at work between liberalism and Catholicism in the wake of the revolutionary age ... It lays a firm and contextually strong foundation for studying the afterlives of one of the most exciting and ideologically contested eras in the modern world." --European History Quarterly

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