Between Tradition and Modernity: Slovenian Catholic Intellectuals and the National Question in a Transnational Perspective (1848−1948)

The project Between Tradition and Modernity: Slovenian Catholic Intellectuals and the National Question in a Transnational Perspective (1848 – 1948) addresses the relationship between Catholicism and the development of Slovenian national identity in the critical century marked by two upheavals: the bourgeois revolution of 1848 and the communist takeover after the Second World War. This topic will be analysed in all state and political systems in which Slovenians lived at the time of the formation of their national identity that was simultaneously the era of great changes in the stand of the Catholic Church and the Catholic bloc as a whole. The changes were not independent but deeply entwined; the research project brings important insights for a deeper understanding of the development of the Slovenian national question and of the Catholic bloc in that period. The project also raises important issues for the international humanities. Research on the development of national identity and nationalisms received much attention in the 1980s and 1990s, when fundamental studies in the field emerged. These were marked especially by interpretive differences that are reflected in the form of various interpretive models prevalent today (modernism, ethnosymbolism, perennialism, etc.), but in terms of content they mostly followed individual national or political frameworks. Recently, new methodological tendencies have appeared to give the subject a new research impetus. The project Between Tradition and Modernity provides answers to the latest international tendencies from the viewpoint of content as well as methods. In terms of content, it is crucial to understand the relationship between national and religious identity to fully grasp the development of nationalism in Central and Southeastern Europe. The latter has already been exposed on a descriptive level (mostly in the case of Croatia and Serbia) but not in the case of Slovenian history. The project will bring new results in this field, facilitated by a fresh methodological approach based on two intertwined vantage points, i.e., intellectual and transnational history. These approaches are connected through the content focus of the project, i.e., the work of Slovenian Catholic intellectuals committed to the development of Slovenian national identity and Slovenian national question. The analysis will embrace intellectuals from the entire Slovenian ethnic territory and will focus on the many specificities of the border regions (Carinthia, Prekmurje, the Littoral). By carefully selecting the key Catholic intellectuals and analysing their work, the research will show how their views on the development of national adherence and its relationship to religious identity was evolving, drawing on the changes in their position over time and considering local particularities (e.g., view of the Catholic intellectuals on the problem in the border areas or in nationally endangered regions). As confirmed by recent research, it is necessary to include transnational aspect in the studies of nationality and nationalism since the development of said phenomena never occurred confined to individual political frameworks. Moreover, consideration of the transnational dimension is essential when studying the activities of the Catholic bloc, which are transnational in itself. This is also confirmed by the work of many Slovenian Catholic intellectuals of the 19th and 20th century, who were actively engaged with the international community as they were intellectually formed in educational centres outside the Slovenian ethnic territory. The entwinement of content and methodological novelties represents the major value of the project, the results of which will be important not only for Slovenian but also international humanities. Accordingly, a strategy for the dissemination of project results has been designed, which will be actively involved in international scientific dialogue at the highest level.