„Egy elsőrendű államférfi”. Joseph de Maistre a Religio folyóiratban (1841–1900)
“A Statesman of the Highest Caliber”: Joseph de Maistre in the Journal Religio (1841-1900)

Summary/Abstract: Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) remains the most influential and at the same time most controversial author of the French Counterrevolution, whose work was widely cited in European conservative circles all through the 19th century. The paper examines the Hungarian reception of Maistre by a close reading of his mentions in Religio, the most popular Catholic journal of the time, giving an outline of their frequency in different decades, the change in the focus of citations, and the most important contexts in which he was cited. The overall picture may only be surprising for those who still regard Maistre as a fierce traditionalist or a spokesperson of the extreme right, for it is in fact well known from recent scholarly literature (and that is what the citations in Religio also confirm in the Hungarian case) that he was just as frequently referred to as an advocate of rights and liberties, the autonomy of the church, or a Christian form of social, political, and scientific progress. In other words, a rival form of modernity, who often ardently rejected its prevailing form but not modernity in general. The case of the Religio is also interesting because it sheds some light on the difficult position of Hungarian Catholics toward secular authorities from the pre-revolutionary era to 1848, 1867, and beyond.

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