Catholicism and Cinema : Modernization and Modernity

The book addresses the Catholic Church’s cinema-related activity, focusing on the Italian case during the period between the 1930s and the 1960s.

This volume investigates the ways in which the Catholic Church used cinema as a space for action within the complex dynamics of modern mass society. Within this context it analyses the Catholic Church’s Tilm policy illuminating for the Tirst time, by means of a systematic analysis, a vast body of documents preserved at the Vatican Secret Archives and at numerous Italian Catholic archives – some of them indexed and opened to scholars. Amongst them we Tind Archivio Storico dell’Istituto Luigi Sturzo [Historical Archive of the Luigi Sturzo Institute] and the Archivio dell’Istituto per la storia dell’Azione Cattolica e del Movimento Cattolico in Italia Paolo VI [Archive of the Institute for the History of Catholic Action and the Catholic Movement in Italy Paul VI]; other only partially indexed like the Nazareno Taddei Archive or faced with the risk of closure, like the Associazione Cattolica Esercenti Cinema [Catholic Exhibitors’ Association] Archive.