International History, Religious History, Catholic History: Perspectives for Cross-Fertilization (1830—1914)

Abstract

The essay explores what recent trends in international and religious (in particular, Catholic) history have to offer one another. On the one hand, the transformation of imperial history into global history and a new attention for the role of non-state actors in international politics are opening the eyes of international historians to religion as one of the main forces shaping the modern world. On the other hand, historians of religion are rediscovering the essentially transnational nature of their subject, and its enmeshment with politics at every turn. In the history of Catholicism, this takes the form of an aggiornamento of 'old-fashioned' themes such as ultramontanism, missionary expansion and the papacy. After having drifted apart for half a century, the two subdisciplines thus increasingly appear as natural allies in reconsidering the master narrative of modernity. The concept of 'religious internationalism', illustrated here through its Catholic variety, allows us to 'think together' the different aspects of religion's transformation into worldwide mass movements, and to grasp the key role of religion in creating a global public sphere that was conditioned by international politics, but in turn also refashioned the international system.