A View From Rome : On the Eve of the Modernist Crisis

The underlying contention of this study is that, since Catholic Modernism was defined not by the so-called modernists but by the anti-modernists, to understand it one must understand the anti-modernist (or integralist) mind. Schultenover argues that, since Catholic Modernism was defined not by modernists but by the anti-modernists, to understand it one must understand the anti-modernist (or integralist) mind. "The underlying contention of this study is that, since Catholic Modernism was defined not by the so-called modernists but by the anti-modernists, to understand it one must understand the anti-modernist (or integralist) mind. But to understand the anti-modernist mind, one must understand the Mediterranean culture that so largely produced it. The illumination can happen only against the backdrop of its larger historical context, the ecclesiastical mind of the nineteenth century as it reacted to the currents of socio-political change. By wedding anthropological interpretation with historical critical investigation this study opens a window onto the official ecclesiastical mind stretching from Pius X back to Gregorgy XVI. More than that, however, it shows the behavior of this mind as possibly paradigmatic for the official church's behavior in similar moments of socio-cultural turbulence from the time of Christianity's immersion in empire with Constantine up to the present day. By revealing the cultural/ideological embeddedness of the Modernist Crisis, this study underscores power and hegemony as the pre-eminent issue behind this as well as every other historical construction." "The principal document of this study is the remarkably full and revelatory memories of the Jesuit superior general Luis Martin (1846-1906), who bridged the papacies of Leo XIII and Pius X. Written in almost absolute secrecy and spirited out of Rome on Martin's death, these memoirs provide an incomparably rich resource that, under the lights of anthropological interpretation, opens up the interior psycho-social dynamics of the institutional church in a particularly telling moment of its history."--Jacket I. Papal Perceptions -- 1. Rome's General Synoptic Of Antecedent Isms -- 2. Rome's More Particular And Immediate Synoptic: Americanism/modernism -- Ii. Perceptions Of The Jesuit General -- 3. Martin And The English Jesuits: Behind The Joint Pastoral Condemnation Of Liberalism -- 4. The Joint Pastoral Affair -- Iii. Perceptions Of The Mediterranean Mind -- 5. Cultural Influences -- Concluding Postscript: Historiographical Considerations. David G. Schultenover. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [245]-260) And Index.