Electric light and the visualization of Catholic power in Spain during the Restoration Era (1874–1931)
This article analyses the contested adoption of electric lights by the Spanish Catholic church during the Bourbon Restoration era (1874–1931). Through a careful reading of primary sources, namely Catholic popular magazines, and official documents, it will show how Catholic authorities and practition...
| Published in: | Critical research on religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2021
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| In: |
Critical research on religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Spain
/ Catholic church
/ Electricity
/ Church
/ Controversy
/ History 1874-1931
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| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture CH Christianity and Society KBH Iberian Peninsula KDB Roman Catholic Church |
| Further subjects: | B
history of technology
B electric light B Restoration B history of light B Catholic Church B electricity B Spain |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article analyses the contested adoption of electric lights by the Spanish Catholic church during the Bourbon Restoration era (1874–1931). Through a careful reading of primary sources, namely Catholic popular magazines, and official documents, it will show how Catholic authorities and practitioners resisted, negotiated and, ultimately, engaged with electricity in religious spaces. The article argues that electric light contributed to wider exchanges in a non-monolithic Spanish Catholicism on the observance of traditional values or the possibilities of the church’s modernization. However, amid a particularly tense moment regarding the secular–clerical relations, the systematic use of electric lights in churches at the turn of the twentieth century—but also in other public ceremonies—contributed to the making of religious sensations aimed at attracting new believers and reasserting the presence of the institution in a disputed public space. |
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| ISSN: | 2050-3040 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/20503032211015304 |