In the present volume, an international team of 20 scholars examines the triangle between Vatican diplomacy, public opinion and the international environment.

The attraction and repulsion between the Roman Catholic Church and modernity in Europe between 1750 and 2000 Emiel Lamberts (1941), professor emeritus of contemporary history at KU Leuven, is an international expert in the political and religious history of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. His work and the central themes in his research are the starting point in World Views and Worldly Wisdom. No less than eighteen leading international researchers put different aspects of his work in the spotlight. A recurring theme, however, is the attraction and repulsion between the Roman Catholic Church and modernity in Europe between 1750 and 2000. The ambivalent relationship with modernity is therefore the leitmotiv of the first part of this volume, whereas the second part focuses on the repositioning of the Church and the tensions between religion, ideology and politics. In this way the volume reflects Lamberts’s fascination for the history of political institutions as well as his research on Christian democracy. The contributions address – in a comparative way and from a transatlantic viewpoint – this broad period of time in history, which gave rise to different social movements and different models of society in Belgium and elsewhere. Contributors Winfried Becker (Universität Passau), Bruno Béthouart (Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale), Hans Blom (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Alfredo Canavero (Università degli Studi di Milano), Philippe Chenaux (Pontificia Università Lateranense, Roma), Andrea Ciampani (LUMSA, Roma), Jo Deferme (KU Leuven), Jan De Maeyer (KADOC KU Leuven), Henk De Smaele (Universiteit Antwerpen), Carine Dujardin (KADOC KU Leuven), Jean-Dominique Durand (Université Lyon 3), Michael Gehler (Jean Monnet Chair, Universität Hildesheim - Institut für Neuzeit- und Zeitgeschichtsforschung, Wien), Susana Monreal (Universidad Católica del Uruguay), Patrick Pasture (KU Leuven), Patrick M.W. Taveirne (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), Peter Van Kemseke (Europese Commissie, KU Leuven), Vincent Viaene (Attaché bij het Huis van Koning Filip), Els Witte (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

KADOC Artes 8The art of illumination, usually associated with the Middle Ages, experienced a spectacular revival in nineteenth-century Western Europe. This completely different context gave the illuminations another import. The output of the lay and religious workshops reveals a great artistic, stylistic, technical, and thematic diversity. The works illuminated go far beyond the world of exceptional and precious manuscripts and include many occasional documents and devotional images.Richly illustrated with unpublished masterworks, The Revival of Medieval Illumination is an overview of the form by fifteen authors who do not limit their approach to the traditional questions of art history. Rather, they explore the historical, sociocultural, ideological and religious components of the revival, which changed according to time and country, in order to understand the evolution and success of the art of illumination in the long nineteenth century.

Religion in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo has many faces: from the overflowing seminaries and Marian shrines of the Catholic Church to the Islamic brotherhoods, from the healers of Kimban-guism to the televangelism of the booming Pentecostalist churches in the great cities, from the Orthodox communities of Kasai to the ‘invisible’ Mai Mai warriors in the brousse of Kivu. During the colonial period religion was no less central to people’s lives than it is today. More surprisingly, behind the seemingly smooth facade of missions linked closely to imperial power, faith and worship were already marked by diversity and dynamism, tying the Congo into broader African and global movements. The contributions in this book provide insight into the multifaceted history of the interaction between religion and colonization. The authors outline the institutional political framework, and focus on the challenge that old and new forms of slavery entailed for the missions. The atrocities committed at the time of the Congo Free State became an existential question for young Christian communities. In the Belgian Congo after 1908, more structural forms of colonial violence remained a key issue marking religious experiences. And yet, religion also acted as a bridge. The authors emphasize the role intermediaries such as catechists or medical assistants played in the African “appropriation” of Christianity. They examine the complex interaction with indigenous religious beliefs and practices, and zoom in on the part religions played in the independence movement, as well as on their reaction to independence itself. Coming at a moment when Belgium confronts its colonial past, this volume provides a timely reassessment of religion as a key factor.

The changing attitude of Catholic culture towards modernity After decades of a problematic, if not plainly hostile, approach to modernity by Catholic culture, the 1960s marked the beginning of a new era. As the Church employed a more positive approach to the world, voices in the Catholic milieu embraced a radical perspective, channeling the need for social justice for the poor and the oppressed. The alternative and complementary world views of ‘universalism’ and ‘liberation’ would drive the engagement of Catholics for generations to come, shaping the idea of international community in Catholic culture. Because of its traditional connection with the papacy and because of its prominent role in the map of European progressive Catholicism, Italy stands out as an ideal case study to follow these dynamics. By locating the Italian scenario in a broader geographical frame, Universalism and Liberation offers a new vantage point from which to investigate the social and political relevance of religion in an age of crisis.

The essays in this book cover a fast-paced 150 years of Vatican diplomacy, starting from the fall of the Papal States in 1870 to the present day. They trace the transformation of the Vatican from a state like any other to an entity uniquely providing spiritual and moral sustenance in world affairs. In particular, the book details the Holy See’s use of neutrality as a tool and the principal statecraft in its diplomatic portmanteau. This concept of “permanent neutrality,” as codified in the Lateran Treaties of 1929, is a central concept adding to the Vatican's uniqueness and, as a result, the analysis of its policies does not easily fit within standard international relations or foreign policy scholarship. These essays consider in detail the Vatican’s history with “permanent neutrality” and its application in diplomacy toward delicate situations as, for instance, vis a vis Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan, but also in the international relations of the Cold War in debates about nuclear non-proliferation, or outreach toward the third world, including Cuba and Venezuela. The book also considers the ineluctable tension between pastoral teachings and realpolitik, as the church faces a reckoning with its history.

The book masterfully knits together the various curves and routes traveled so far by the Catholic Church in Africa. From an African perspective, the book presents a general trajectory of Catholicism on the continent by highlighting some significant events and moments in the evolution of the Catholic Church in Africa. It equally profiles the Vatican’s policy of indigenization as realized on the continent through the Africanization of the local episcopate. That policy prepared the way for the emergence of the local churches in Africa on the heels of the post-missionary phase that terminated with the convocation of the First African Synod of Bishops in 1994. Beyond the vicissitudes of the relatively recent past, the book boldly indicates the likely future shape and direction of African Catholicism. It contends that the future shape of the church in Africa may not be determined by a belabored inculturation, but instead by how the local churches concern themselves with concrete realities such as poverty, lack of opportunities, and ecological issues. It envisages a church that may not shy away from asserting itself within the mainstream ecclesiastical politics of global Catholicism where it must “connect, compete and collaborate.”