Between Political Religion and Politicized Religion: Interwar Fascism and Religion Revisited

The following article surveys the relationships between fascist ideology and religion in interwar Europe. First, it provides a working definition for the term ‘clerical fascism’ through the exploration of 14 case studies presented at the 2006 international workshop on Clerical Fascism in interwar Europe. Next, it argues that fascism, understood as a syncretic coalition between political and politicized religion, improves the analytical understanding of how fascist movements and religious entities extended collaborations. This approach enables us to study not only how fascist and religious forces respond to political opportunities but also how these collectivities reshape political context in their favor and create new opportunities. In most cases, battles over two key factions, the ‘custody of youths’ and the ‘rebirth of nations’, provided both political and politicized camps with opportunities to cooperate or struggle.