Abstract
While the notion of masculinity has been incorporated by European and North American research into the field of study of religious history, in Spain its introduction is still in its infancy. This article reflects on the contribution of religious discourses and the experiences of male clergy to the construction of different identity models of masculinity within a very plural Catholicism, at a time of social mobilisation, political transition, sexual liberation, and religious secularisation. These changes questioned the Catholic masculine ideal of the first decades of Franco dictatorship (1939–1975) to propose new profiles of the virile religious archetype. The article states that the crisis of the priest, which is part of the religious crisis of the 1960s, can be interpreted as a struggle between different models of Catholic masculinity. At the same time, this crisis regarding the figure of the priest influenced religious, social, and political changes in Spain.
Highlights
Masculinity, Religion, and Priesthood This text explores the relationship between Catholicism and the ideals of masculinity in order to reflect on how a Catholic man defined himself in the 1960s and the early 1970s in Spain
The concern of the official church was not oriented towards reinforcing the masculine image of religion, of Catholics and of priests, but rather towards maintaining a difficult balance between tradition and innovation
This model was, questioned by other sectors of Catholicism, both by those who wanted to delve into the more egalitarian and committed traits of the priest, but at the same time reaffirmed qualities of worker masculinity, and by those closer to fundamentalist positions, who demanded a return to spirituality and a clergy linked to power
Summary
Masculinity, Religion, and Priesthood This text explores the relationship between Catholicism and the ideals of masculinity in order to reflect on how a Catholic man defined himself in the 1960s and the early 1970s in Spain. JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY concept of the church — which includes clergy and laity, men and women — I will focus on the figure of the priest as a sexed man who represented a masculine stereotype, an ideal that faced a crisis at this time of profound transformations in the Catholic world This will allow me, on the one hand, to observe how gender contributed to shaping religious identities and, on the other, how the changes in Catholicism influenced gender identities, especially in the case of masculinity.[2]. It caused tensions in the clergy and confusion among the faithful, and a certain renewal of a church that in the 1940s and 1950s had been characterised by triumphalism, isolation of the modernising currents of Catholicism, and the uncontested predominance of the male clergy It influenced the rapid modernisation of Spanish society, by contributing to the diffusion of ideals regarding Catholic masculinity that made possible less-hierarchical relationships between women and men, and plural ways of understanding religion.
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