Abstract
The relationship between fascism and religion, especially during the period 1919–45 in Europe, was a very complex phenomenon and one that has still not been fully explored. Nevertheless, over the last 40 years much scholarly study has been devoted to it, in particular to the relationships between Italian Fascism, the Third Reich and institutional religion. This contribution will not cover that particular ground again in detail, but will instead concentrate on some specific aspects of the interaction between fascism and religion that have been the subject of attention by historians in recent decades: the attitude of the leadership and membership of fascist movements towards religion, the ways in which fascist regimes engaged in processes of ‘sacralizing politics’, and the appeal of fascism to Christians—in particular the phenomenon of ‘clerical fascism’.
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Notes
L. Berggren, ‘Completing the Protestant Reformation: Ultra-Nationalism, Christianity and the Possibility of “Clerical Fascism”’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 8, no. 2, 2007, pp. 303–15.
M. Cronin, ‘“Catholicizing Fascism, Fascistizing Catholicism?” The Blueshirts and the Jesuits in 1930s Ireland’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 8, no. 2, 2007, pp. 401–12.
A. Shekhovtsov, ‘By Cross and Sword: “Clerical Fascism” in “Interwar Ukraine”’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 8, no. 2, 2007, pp. 271–86.
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© 2011 John Pollard
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Pollard, J. (2011). Fascism and Religion. In: Pinto, A.C. (eds) Rethinking the Nature of Fascism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230295001_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230295001_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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