Church in the State or State in the Church?

This project is a contribution to the history of the development of Catholicism in 19th century Austria. It examines the writings and speeches of the Viennese Archbishop Cardinal Rauscher in order to better understand the transformation of the Church`s self-image between Vormärz and Kulturkampf. The wider research context is thus constituted by the political events in the monarchy as well as by the internal Catholic debates in the period between 1815 and 1870. During this time, the Austrian Catholic Church was exploring its new role as a church loyal to the state, while at the same time aware of its supranational independence and its critical impact for the modern society. This self-awareness shall be examined on the basis of the theological and political opinions of the Viennese archbishop and his pastoral initiatives. In this regard, the pastoral letters represent a little known but promising source corpus, which awaits critical analysis and interpretation. As a further part of this movement, the Viennese provincial council of 1858 will be examined for the first time with regard to its event, text and immediate impact. The project aims on the one hand to show an authentic (self-)image of the Austrian Church in Vienna, and on the other hand to provide more information about the Catholic milieu of Vienna in the 19th century. Rauscher`s pastoral letters, speeches and addresses are thus postulated as a laboratory, in which Rauscher`s views on church and state were formed and by which he guided the church. The question will be which ideas of church are developed and employed in the pastoral letters and which impact the Council of 1858 was able to generate in propelling a new vision of church. The important role of Rauscher in 19th century church politics has often been emphasized. Yet, there is no study about his political and theological ideas, which emerged, changed, and prevailed over time. This research gap is to be closed by the present project.