“GOD RATHER THAN MEN”: AUSTRIAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CHRISTIAN SOCIAL PARTY, 1848-1893

Abstract

This dissertation examines the changes in Austrian Catholic theology from 1848 to 1893 and the role these changes played in the foundation of the Christian Social Party. Due to a series of crises after 1848, the theology of the Austrian Catholic Church underwent several shifts, ultimately settling on the belief that, in a modern world, direct political action from the Church was not only permissible, but imperative to defend the Church against those who would destroy it. This shift in political theology, which allowed for informal and unofficial theological participation in the realm of politics, was necessary to allow for the development of the Christian Social Party. This dissertation focuses primarily on the German-speaking areas of the Habsburg Monarchy, drawing on a variety of sources, including letters, diaries, meeting notes, legal records, newspapers, theological treatises, and contemporary academic journals to track the theological and political discussions that took place in this portion of the monarchy. The first chapter defines “political theology” as it is used in this dissertation (i.e., as a broader concept, positioned in opposition to the more limited and problematic definition of Carl Schmitt) as “the study of the divine as it relates to politics,” and provides an overview of the state of political theology in both Austria and the Catholic Church as a whole before 1848. Chapter two focuses on the shifts in political theology that occurred as a result of the Revolutions of 1848, with the paradigm of political theology ultimately coalescing around the leadership of Joseph Othmar Rauscher and the notion of a negotiated legalistic political compromise. Chapter three examines the Habsburg Concordat with Rome of 1855 and its subsequent undoing through the May Laws of 1868, which tested the new paradigm of political theology. Chapter four follows the arrest, trial, and conviction of Bishop Rudigier of Linz for “disturbing the peace,” following his attempted publication of a pastoral letter that called for Catholics to disobey laws that went against the Concordat and Church teachings. This proved to be a pivot point in the development of political theology of the Habsburg Monarchy, leading now-Cardinal Rauscher to reassess the political theological paradigm. Chapter five follows the proceedings of the First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican and the Kulturkampf in Germany, both of which resulted in the development of a more aggressive political theological paradigm in Austria. Finally, chapter six examines the completion of the shift from the Vormärz political theological paradigm to the paradigm of popular public political theology employed by Karl von Vogelsang in the ideological creation of the Christian Social Party. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that while other factors, such as antisemitism and the dissatisfaction of the lower clergy, as argued by John Boyer, helped to create the Christian Social Party in Austria, a shift in political theology in the Austrian Church and in the Catholic Church as a whole was necessary before the various ideologies of the Christian Social Party could coalesce.