The "Protestant Peril"

In Italy, anti-Protestantism became a relevant motif of reactionary polemics during the Risorgimento and the post-unification period in the 19th century. Attenuated around 1900, the anti-Protestant offensive resumed after the First World War. Between the early 1920s and the mid-1950s, the hostility of the Catholic Church towards the Protestant presence and mission in Italy became a significant social and political phenomenon. It succeeded in influencing the attitude of the Italian state and the legislation on religious freedom itself. Reconstructing Catholic anti-Protestantism, Paolo Zanini shows that the attitude towards Protestant denominations was one of the features of continuity between Fascism and the first decade of the post-war Republic.

Auteur

Paolo Zanini teaches Contemporary History at the University of Milan. His main fields of research are the Middle East policy of the Holy See and the Catholic attitude towards Zionism.