Converting a nation
Subtitle: a modern inquisition and the unification of Italy
By: Ariella Lang.
Series: Studies in European culture and history
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
Subjects: Catholic Church -- Italy -- History -- 19th century; Conversion -- Catholic Church; Catholic converts -- Italy -- Rome -- History; Italy -- Church history -- 19th century; Italy -- History -- 1815-1870
Description: "In this revealing account of Catholic conversion in Unification Italy, Lang ably demonstrates the strength of Catholic political opinion in the shaping of national Italian identity during the Unification period. Lang's work examines a variety of newspapers, novels, and inquisition trials whose narratives unfolded in step with the formation of the nation-state. These narratives of conversion allowed the Church and its supporters to tell a story of national conquest and to advocate a society that upheld the legal, social, and religious tenets of Christianity. In a vehement rejection of modernization, these stories are indicative of the Vatican's quest to ensure that the future Italian state and its citizenry remained the promised land and chosen people of the Catholic Church - a quest that had serious ramifications for Italian and Vatican politics in the twentieth century."--book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.