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“Electricity is an evil thing”: technological change, modernity and catholicism during the Spanish Restoration Era (1880 - CA.1920)

Publicated to:Historia contemporánea. 2025; (79): 757 - 788 - 2025-01-01 (79), DOI:

Authors: Daniel Pérez Zapico

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Abstract

This article contributes to the study of the interactions between Catholicism and technology in Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To this end, it adopts a perspective that takes into account the incorporation of technical devices identified with techno-scientific modernity in the daily life of Spanish society; in particular, it addresses the reception and implementation of the electric light in Catholic temples and worship. The aim is to demonstrate how the perspective of the (cultural) history of technology can enrich central historiographical debates in the study of end-of-the-19th century Catholicism, such as the reconfiguration of religion in modernity, the conflicts between clericalism and anticlericalism in the public space, the construction of Catholic mobilization and protest, or the debates about the remasculinization of religion in early 20th century.

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