The influence of English Catholic Humanism in Catalonia during the Inter-war period: the contribution of Hilaire Belloc

Abstract

The study of the popularisation of English Catholic Catholic journalism in Catalonia in the 1920’s and 1930’s has mainly focused on the figure of G. K. Chesterton. However, his great friend, the polemicist Hilaire Belloc, also had a certain presence in Catalonia through direct contact with the country, translation of his articles and works and collaboration in Catalan media. The fact that Belloc was clearly an anti-modern apologist of the Christian faith and the original ideologist of a ‘medievalist’ political and economic system called ‘distributism’, as well as a prominent historian and author of biographies, endowed him with a multifaceted character and special interest for the Catalan intellectuals, especially the Catholics. In the shadow of Chesterton, the present article highlights how his texts and ideas had a valuable impact, which ultimately contributed to the penetration into Catalonia of the new English-Catholic Catholic humanism.