The political theology of secularization. Pedro de basaldúa and the basque exile in argentina

Abstract

Since the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, Argentine Catholics defended different political models, based on various theological principles. The case of Basque nationalism, fervently Catholic and allied with the Republic, created a dilemma for the confessional South American intellectuals. The alliance between Franco and Perón —both supported by the Catholic Church— prompted a theological reflection on the political in the sense of a Christian Democratic project. This article attempts to account for this transformation, analyzing the circulation of ideas between Basque exiles and Argentine Catholics, concentrating on the figure of Pedro de Basaldúa, a prominent political, intellectual and ethnic-cultural articulator in the second half of the twentieth century between Europe and Latin America.