Modernisme et religion de guerre. Lectures italiennes de Loisy

The analysis of the circulation of Alfred Loisy’s wartime writings in the Italian scenario adds a novel chapter to the transnational, cultural history of Christianity in the context of the 1914-1918 mobilization of intellect. This article reconstructs the different reactions coming from a multi-faceted religious front composed of Catholic modernists, evangelicals and “free believers”, both in the public debate and private correspondence. In particular, it focuses on how Loisy’s key point regarding wartime/war religion, and the related theme of religious revival, was received, translated and reframed by different figures moving halfway across scholarship and popularization, such as Romolo Murri, Ernesto Buonaiuti, Mario Puglisi, Giovanni Pioli and Antonino De Stefano. What emerges is a reconsideration of a category which historiography on WWI has repeatedly drawn attention to – the political “religion of the fatherland” – as a constellation of meanings including both nationalist and humanitarian hopes, connecting in different ways the utopia of the “religion of humanity” and the support to the Entente. The impact of religious studies on modern public opinion and national discourse is confirmed, as well as the role of the Roman Catholic mindset in the opposition to a full secularization/de-transcendentalization of religion and in the perpetuation of anti-Judaic clichés, even from a modernist, heterodox or non-conformist point of view.