Vivat Christus Rex! The Cult of Christ the King, Vatican Apologetics, Catholic Action, and the Far Right

This essay will explore the origins of the cult and doctrine of Christ the King in the encyclicals of pope Pius XI and the role which the doctrine it played in his closely-twinned strategies of ‘a Christian restoration of society in a Catholic sense’ and the propaganda battles with the Church’s enemies, especially Communism, as the theological inspiration of Catholic lay mobilisation through the organisations of Catholic Action in the world-wide Church, from the early 1920s to the 1960s. Focussed on the use of the doctrine of Christus Rex as the key tool of Vatican apologetics against the enemies of the Roman Catholic Church, the essay will also show how it came to be exploited by more right-wing Catholic groups in the inter-war period, and how it has remained a major weapon in the armoury of traditionalist Catholics, as well as far right groups, down to the present day.

‘Communism Is a Religion That Is Inspired, Directed and Motivated by the Devil Himself’: Billy Graham’s Apologetics and the Cold War West

Anti-Communism constituted a core feature of Billy Graham’s preaching in the 1950s. In Graham’s sermons Communism did not just stand for the anti-religious thread of an atheistic ideology, as it was traditionally used in Protestant Fundamentalist circles, but also for its opposition to American freedom and Free Market Capitalism. This article argues that the term Communism took on significantly new meaning in the evangelical milieu after the Second World War, indicating the new evangelicals’ ambition to restore, defend, and strengthen Christianity by linking it into the discourse on American Cold War patriotism. This article will contrast the anti-Communist rhetoric of Billy Graham and other leading evangelical figures of the 1950s, such as Harold Ockenga, with the anti-Communist rhetoric used by early Fundamentalists in the 1910s and 1920s. Back then, Communism was predominantly interpreted as a genuine threat to Christianity. The term also made appearances in eschatological interpretations regarding the imminent end-times. The more secular interpretation of Communism as a political and economic counter-offer by evangelical preachers such as Billy Graham will be discussed as an important indicator of the politicization and implied secularization of the evangelical milieu after the Second World War.

From Mental Slavery to Brainwashing: Anti-Catholic Legacies in Anti-Communist Polemics

This chapter examines the constitutive role of nineteenth and early twentieth-century anti-Catholic polemics in shaping anti-Communist rhetoric during the early Cold War. It charts how crucial anti-Catholic tropes, according to which Catholicism denied free will, perpetuated psychological and spiritual enslavement, and perverted follower’s emotional lives, resurfaced as an anti-Communist tropes in 1940s and 1950s. Anti-communist writers, both consciously and unconsciously, drew on these anti-Catholic tropes to declare that Communism denied free thought through brainwashing, expectations of total obedience, and spiritual enslavement. These conceptual and rhetorical continuities, we argue, help explain why many thinkers conceived Communism as a threat not only to economic or political orders, but also to the psychological and emotional foundations of civilization itself.

Between Rome and the Godless: Martin Niemöller’s Apologetic Moves, 1930–50

Martin Niemöller’s apologetic interventions from the late 1920s to the early 1950s reveal a complicated trajectory. He stood at the front line of the Protestant struggle against aggressive secularism in Weimar Germany. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Niemöller quickly emerged as the figurehead of attempts to defend the dogmatic integrity of the Protestant churches, yet also maintained the conversation with the German Christians in a common front against the ‘godless’ Bolsheviks and Freethinkers. After he had seriously contemplated converting to the Roman Catholic Church from 1939 to early 1941, he returned to a combative assertion of his Protestant identity vis-à-vis the Catholics in the early Federal Republic. Overall, the chapter argues that the dynamics of the religious field during the Third Reich are best understood as an intensification.

Sacred Values: Islam, Communism, and Moroccan Nationalism in the Long 1960s

This chapter examines efforts of Jews and Muslims in Morocco to reconcile communism with Moroccan nationalism predicated on Islam, centered on the figure of the King as the amir al-mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful) through the long 1960s. The stakes for Jewish and Muslim communists in this setting were high, including the need to demonstrate authenticity and legitimacy of their political movement in the face of accusations of communism as a foreign, colonial, and thus inorganic movement within Morocco. The long 1960s included a major leftist student uprising in 1965, several constitutional crises, and two attempted coups, all of which heightened the existential tension of the Moroccan left within the Islamist monarchy.

Ideology and Futurology in Early 20th-Century Britain: Wells, Haldane, Bernal, and Their Critics

This chapter studies the response of rationalist writers to the claims of theologians arguing that their ideology lacked any sense of a wider purpose to human life. It is argued that to replace the spiritual dimension of religion, authors such as H. G. Wells, J. B. S. Haldane, and J. D. Bernal appealed to the possibility that the human race could in future develop a collective mentality and spread this awareness throughout the cosmos by space travel. Their ideas thus anticipated themes developed by later science-fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke in his 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Introduction: ‘Defending the Faith: Global Histories of Apologetics and Politics in the 20th Century’

This chapter gives an overview of the history of religious competition and secular-religious politics in the twentieth century. It introduces two key terms of this volume, secularism and apologetics. It proposes apologetics as a novel way to understand not only how religious but also secular actors defend their ideological positions. Following a history of the term apologetics in church use, this chapter proposes a model of apologetics neutralized of its narrowly Christian context that can be used for comparison across time and space. This introductory chapter then offers some general findings about the nature of religious competition in the twentieth century, before discussing in a comparative fashion the contributions to this volume.

British and Muslim? British Converts and Their Apologetics for Islam in the Interwar Period

The chapter investigates the new religious life of a few well-known British converts to Islam in the interwar period; and how they practiced and defended their new faith in their colonial "secularized" state. In their eagerness to spread Islam in Europe, British converts swung between two social and religious groups at the height of European imperialism and modernism. How far can we categorize their writings as "apologetics" for Islam in the land of the colonizers? In what way did they attempt to combine their new Islamic beliefs with their background as Europeans? The chapter discusses some of the issues which they raised in response to the public debates on Islam in Britain, especially about questions related to the Caliphate, pan-Islam, colonialism, atheism and the position of women in Islam.

Afterword: Apologetics as a Seismograph of Social Change and an Arena of Secular-Religious Conflicts

Coming from the perspective of historical sociology, the epilogue highlights some systematic features of apologetics as approached in the volume. First, apologetics serves as a seismograph of social change. Second, it expresses and constitutes a relation with an outer and inner opponent as well as with an audience. Third, it relates to different levels of society: to the meso-level of religious and irreligious groups and organizations, and to the micro-level of individuals as iconic figures in the defence of faith. On both levels, however, the ‘big picture’ is always evoked. Finally, apologetics is discussed with reference to the "Multiple Secularities"-approach as one of the arenas in which disputes about the place of religion and its limits are fought.

Recognising Secularisation: The Church of England and Its Struggle for a Political Role (1960–90)

For leaders of the Church of England, secularisation was such an obvious fact that it virtually became a self-fulfilling prophecy as it informed political and theological debates within the Church. This article shows how by adjusting to secularisation the Church demonstrated a remarkable degree of resilience and managed to remain an important national voice – at least until the end of the Thatcher era. Three factors were of particular relevance in this development: First, the use of old networks which gave the Church of England privileged access to the political establishment. Second, the professionalisation of its political structure that equipped the Church with expertise. Third, complex changes within the Anglican theological strands that were opened up for political and social issues. These elements enabled the Church to develop new political agendas that were able to substitute political and moral positions that had become obsolete in the era of secularisation.