An Intellectual History of Liberal Catholicism in Western Europe, 1789-1870

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. Cover Contents List of contributors Bio-bibliographies Acknowledgements Liberal Catholicism/Catholic Liberalism: A non-sense? Aude Attuel-Hallade (ed.) Part One Theology, truth and the philosophy of history 1 Political Modernity-Christianity: Interpretative circles Bernard Bourdin 2 John Henry Newman, an anti-liberal? Frédéric Libaud 3 Edmund Burke, T.B. Macaulay, Lord Acton and the French Revolution: The Church, the State and the individual Aude Attuel-Hallade Part Two Catholicism and liberty(/ies) 4 Liberties before liberalism: Ultramontane political thought in England, c. 1835–50 Colm O’Siochru 5 Historical and ecclesiological foundations of Spanish Catholic liberalism. From the Jansenist imprint to the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812 Bernard Callebat 6 Between Sinai and Calvary: Spanish Catholicism in the face of freedom of worship in 1869 Francisco Javier Ramon Solans Part Three Temporal and spiritual power and education 7 Sin, grace and secular history: Pierre Paul Royer-Collard’s criticism of the anti-sacrilege law of 1825 Daniele Giuseppe Palmer 8 ‘A free Church in a free state’. The relationship between Church and State in the thought of Charles de Montalembert Arthur Hérisson 9 J. H. Newman facing the spirit of the day: A focus on the idea of education in the Victorian context Maud Besnard Conclusion: Contested faith or contested liberty? – Contexts and strategies of Liberal Catholicism Peter Schröder Bibliography Index of names