The Religious Radicals of ’68

Abstract

This article focuses on a largely neglected group in the generation of 1968: the Lorscheid movement. Within the Dominican Order (a prestigious Catholic international male order), the Lorscheid movement developed radical conceptions of Christian tradition. Lorscheid members felt very much part of the spirit of 1968. Whereas the radicalism of 1968 is generally associated with a “Zeitregime der Moderne,” a regime of modernity that required a liberation from the past, the Lorscheid members instead intended to “catch up with history” by reclaiming accounts of the past that the Church had disowned. Young Dutch Dominicans who were active in the Lorscheid movement embraced the legacy of their Order, linking history to the present via commemorative practices, actively selecting and neglecting elements of the Dominican tradition. They also affiliated with others of their own generation outside the Order, adopting discourses critical of Europe and linking their own emancipation with liberation movements in the recently decolonized regions of the world.