Christendom

Where did the ideas that made up the Counter-Enlightenment come from?  The answer is ultimately the mediaeval idea of Christendom and the model of Church-State relations associated with it.

A traditional Catholic theologian on the Church and the State

This is the latest post in a series on Counter-Enlightenment Catholicism.  In it, I want to disinter the view put forward by Cardinal Camillo Tarquini on the proper relationship between the Church and the State in his Iuris ecclesiastici publici institutiones (1887).

The traditional Catholic coronation rite

Some excerpts, taken from the Pontificale Romanum (before the ceremony was deleted from it in 1968):

Religious liberty in the Theodosian Code and St Thomas Aquinas

In a recent post, I set out the official or orthodox position of Counter-Enlightenment Catholicism towards religious liberty.  This stance lasted roughly from the French Revolution of 1789 to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and its decrees Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate.

In this post, I want to look at some manifestations of the Counter-Enlightenment position from earlier in Christian history.

Counter-Enlightenment ideology in the Hamas charter

In recent posts on this and my other blogs, I have been exploring some writings of the European Christian Counter-Enlightenment.  In this post, I want to draw attention to some elements of Counter-Enlightenment thought that reappear in the 1988 Hamas Charter.

Counter-Enlightenment Catholicism in recent times

In this post, I want to trace the survival among ultra-conservative Catholics of some of the themes (and conspiracy theories) of Counter-Enlightenment ideology that I have been examining recently here and on my other blogs.

What was Counter-Enlightenment Catholicism?

I'm writing quite a bit at the moment about reactionary or Counter-Enlightenment Catholicism, and I intend to write some more on the same subject.  It may be useful to define briefly what I mean by these terms.

"The Doctrine of Fascism" by Benito Mussolini

This essay, first published in the Enciclopedia Italiana in 1932, can be regarded as an official explanation of the Italian political movement known to history as fascism.  It was ghostwritten for the Duce by the philosopher Giovanni Gentile.

The Kingship of Christ and the Conversion of the Jewish Nation, Fr Denis Fahey

This book is an interesting counterpart to some of the other texts relating to conspiracy theories and Counter-Enlightenment thought that I have been discussing recently here and on my other blogs.  However, it is of more than merely historical interest, since Fr Fahey and his ideas continue to be influential among some archconservative Catholics, particularly in the United States (see e.g. here, here and here).