ABSTRACT
Julio de la Cueva examines the political cultures of Catholicism and secularism. Their Spanish expression should be situated as part of a wider European dispute: a culture war (Kulturkampf). In Spain the Restoration period brought with it the establishment of Catholicism as the state religion, which was given constitutional protection. Anti-Church sentiment was also on the rise and grew in influence after 1898, mirroring developments in France and Portugal. Anti-clericalism became a key component within the culture of Spanish Republicanism, which had moderate and radical expressions. For the latter, only the removal of the public presence of the Catholic Church was sufficient. Catholic political culture, also engaged in popular mobilization, articulating a more militant expression. For this culture, the Church was under siege and must be defended. These trends continued during the Second Republic and culminated in the outbreak of civil war, with the culture war ending in extreme violence and the notion of a religious crusade.
