The moderate anti-industrialism of the spanish social catholicism, 1880-1936

Abstract

The impersonal, conflicting and changing industrial world of big factories and large urban concentrations was initially difficult to reconcile with the Christian ideal (linked to the family and the small community, and also associated with an ethical view of economic activities and a stable environment of close social relations in which values of brotherhood and mutual aid could easily flourish). However, as the industrial reality and the market were well established and it was not possible to reverse, it was finally accepted the given situation, choosing to promote ways that could enable the Church to regain lost influence. This study analyzes the extent to which Spanish Social Catholicism was anti-industrialist between 1880 and 1936, examining the two aspects where the anti-industrialist bias could be found: the attempt to restore a more harmonic system of work organization and labour relations (looking back to the medieval guilds), and the negative perception of the urban-industrial world, especially in relation to the problem of rural-urban migration.