Interpretations of Fascism as a Political Religion in Post-Fascist Italy (1943–1948)
In the last two decades considerable work has been devoted to Italian Fascism considered as a form of political religion. Yet the debate about the religious nature of Italian fascism after the fall of the regime is almost completely neglected. After July 1943 anti-Fascist public discourse aimed at p...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
2014
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| In: |
Politics, religion & ideology
Year: 2014, Volume: 15, Issue: 1, Pages: 23-44 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the last two decades considerable work has been devoted to Italian Fascism considered as a form of political religion. Yet the debate about the religious nature of Italian fascism after the fall of the regime is almost completely neglected. After July 1943 anti-Fascist public discourse aimed at promoting the so-called ‘antifascist paradigm’. This reassuring narrative, which depicted fascism as a regime that had failed its goal to fascistize the Italian people, was supposed to allow the country to start a new democratic life, but produced a substantial misunderstanding of the actual nature of Mussolini's regime. Opposing this trend, some Catholic and ex-fascist intellectuals affirmed a counter-narrative of the recent past. They described fascism as a contemporary, religious-based totalitarian regime, and attributed to these features its appeal to Italian society. The opinions expressed by these intellectuals openly recalled those of Italian anti-fascists as well as Christian and lay intellectuals all over Europe who, starting from the mid-1930s, had acknowledged the religious nature of contemporary totalitarianism. From this point of view, they became part of a wider school of thought which sought to understand the phenomenon of the sacralization of politics. Intentionally disregarded and misunderstood by their contemporaries, these intellectuals nonetheless left a valuable patrimony of knowledge which, subsequently brought to light, has represented the basis for the elaboration of more advanced interpretations of the twentieth-century totalitarian experience. |
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| ISSN: | 2156-7697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Politics, religion & ideology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/21567689.2013.849589 |