The battle for monasteries, cemeteries and schools

Belgium

Bibliographic Data

ID23245686
AuthorsEls Witte (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, corresponding author)
Year2003
Pages102-128
Publication date2003-08-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueCulture Wars (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511496714.005
OpenAlexW965245925
ISBN9780511496714
LanguageEN
Citations received8

The political and cultural history of Belgium has been characterised by three overlapping zones of tension: the relationship between capital and labour, the religious-philosophical divide and the language dispute between Flanders and francophone Belgium. Of these, the ‘religious-philosophical’ divide, which pitted Catholics against liberal secular free-thinkers, is considered the oldest. It was a feature above all of the nineteenth century, although its influence continued to be felt long after 1900. If the Catholic–secular cleavage ran deep into Belgian society, this was in part because it involved a contest between fundamentally opposed worldviews. Both Catholics and free-thinkers wished to see their respective visions imposed upon the public and private lives of the citizenry; both sought to equate their respective subcultures with the encompassing identity of the nation.

Archaeology · Battle · CONTEST · Ethnology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vision · Anthropology · European Political History Analysis · Gender Studies · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies

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