Original scientific paper
THE YOUTH OF THE VRHBOSNIAN ARCHBISHOP JOSIP STADLER
Zoran Grijak
; Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
On the basis of archival and published sources the author researched the family origins, childhood and education of the first Archbishop of Vrhobosnia, Josip Stadler (1843-1918). The author concludes that Sadler's formative years were greatly influenced by the fact that he was brought up in the atmosphere of the Church's institutions, developing from these his own views on contemporary social, cultural and political events. The germanization of the administrative and educational system during the period of neoabsolutism (1851-1860) rendered him especially sensitive to the threat this posed to Croatian national and cultural identity. The period of Stadler's studies in Rome, the 1860s, was characterized by anti-Concordat politics in the Habsburg Monarchy and other European states as well as by secularization in the areas of education and marriage law, which curtailed the influence of the Church in society. Understanding that contemporary secularization processes had their origins in liberal political ideologies, Stadler assumed a negative stance towards liberalism, including that brand of liberalism that was developing within the framework of the Catholic Church. His theological instruction was guided by neoscholasticism; his work later in life would reveal this through religious traditionalism and the belief that the Catholic Church had a special mission in the lives of the Croat people.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
212111
URI
Publication date:
1.7.1999.
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