Catholicism and Secularism

The essay underlines how literature in Italy has been a means for collecting and transmitting traditions deeply rooted in Catholicism, as well as for building an identity founded in religious belief, but it has not been an instrument in creating a hegemonic system of thought. In fact, despite the almost uniform belief in the Christian faith which historically characterized the Italian peninsula, its literature, which has been strongly inspired by religion from its earliest days to the present, has never conveyed and represented a cultural or religious hegemony. The early modern era, with the affirmation of is the so-called ‘secular age’ – even if it was not immediately perceived within society and cultural circles, gave rise to important radical changes. Even if Secularism grew slowly in Italy, and generated consequences much later, can be considered a turning point that determined and characterized the passage to modernity, and thus the modern viewpoint of Italian literature.