Abstract

Heinz Sproll:
The commemoration of the Saeculum Augustum as a theological event in the history of salvation in the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4) in antinomy to its functionalization in the ideology of Romanità del Littorio: two incommensurable temporal structures
Civiltà Cattolica’s response to the Bimillenario Augusteo 1937/38
(FKTh 2026-1, p. 40–53)

This discourse analysis study evaluates the contributions made by the Jesuit-edited semi-official press organ of the Curia, L’Osservatore Romano, on the occasion of the Augustus anniversary in 1938. It concludes that the Curia, on behalf of the Catholic Church, countered the fascist politics of history with considerable effectiveness and far-reaching influence, using the salvific paradigm of the incarnation of the Logos in the Pax Augusta, which had already been advocated by some Church Fathers with reference to Luke 2:1. Contrary to the prevailing view in Italian historiography, the term “political religion” is avoided for fascism, since this ideology already rejected any reference to transcendence in its self-understanding. This study, using the example of the Augustus anniversary in 1938, can identify a clear distance, even a sharp criticism on the part of the Curia, of fascism’s appropriation of the PAX AUGUSTA for its own historical-political purposes.