The collection of essays in Religious Modernism in the Low Countries
aims at instigating a comparative analysis of Protestant and Roman
Catholic modernisms. The contributions make abundantly clear that the
modernist landscape in the Low Countries in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries offers an exceptional variety of views and
perspectives that invite a comparative study. Where should we look for
commonalities and where for inevitable differences? To what extent is
there a simultaneity in the emergence of progressive thought in these
religious traditions? What is the impact of ecclesiastical,
geographical, and political structures? The essays show that the story
of modernism is closely allied with that of a sometimes virulent
anti-modernist reaction. A differentiated understanding of these
intellectual developments and confrontations sheds further light on the
‘shared history’ of Roman Catholics and Protestants in their efforts to
respond to the various challenges posed by the modern world.