The Soul of the Nation: Catholicism and Nationalization in Modern Spain

Religion and politics have historically clashed in modern Spain but the complexity of the controversial and sometimes violent relationships between Catholic values and modern political regimes continue to ride a precarious line of spiritual accommodation versus public policy. Leading experts on religious Spanish tradition and recent historiographic findings set out to define and interrogate grey areas in the last two centuries beyond the reductive conventional notion of an ever-warring ＂Two Spains.＂ The Soul of the Nation unravels the role of religion in the country’s public life following the imperial crisis of 1808 when the Catholic Monarchy put the role of the Church at heart of political and cultural debates.

Claudio Hernández Burgos is Associate Professor at the University of Granada. He has edited seven collective books in English and in Spanish. He is the author of several articles in national and international journals, and two monographic books: Granada azul. La construcción de la Cultura de la Victoria durante el primer franquismo(2011) and Franquismo a ras de suelo. Zonas grises, apoyos sociales y actitudes durante la dictadura(2013).