This article considers the relationships between science and religion (Catholicism) in Argentina from 1820 to mid-20th century as a case of what David Martin has characterized as the French (Latin) pattern of secularization. It examines the role of science and scientific discourse in three episodes in which secularizing measures were discussed and in two cases applied by the state: restrictions to the activities of the regular clergy in 1822; legislation transferring church functions to the state and establishing of non-confessional elementary education in the 1880s; and the attempts in the 1910s at transforming Catholic centers of cult into secular shrines and investing secular images with sacred meanings. The analysis confirms the widely held view that science as such was not the engine of secularization and suggests that it was the pattern of secularization which shaped the relationships between science and religion in a given society.
AdelmanJ (1999) Republic of Capital: Buenos Aires and the Legal Transformation of the Atlantic World. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
2.
Álvarez Díazde Vivar JC (1945) Rivadavia: piedra angular de la enseñanza agrícola en las Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires: Suelo Argentino.
3.
AmeghinoF (1936) Obras completas. Vol. 23. La Plata: Taller de Impresiones Oficiales.
4.
AuzaNT (2007) Católicos y liberales en la generación del ochenta. Buenos Aires: Educa.
5.
AuzaNT (1987-1988) Aciertos y fracasos sociales del catolicismo argentino. Vols. 1–3. Buenos Aires: Docencia-Don Bosco.
6.
BarrancosN (1996) La escena iluminada. Ciencias para trabajadores, 1890-1930. Buenos Aires: Plus Ultra.
7.
Besio MorenoN (1915) El sistema filosófico de Agustín Álvarez. In Álvarez A (1915) ¿Adónde vamos?Buenos Aires: La cultura argentina, pp. 7–27
8.
BiaginiH (1985) El movimiento positivista argentino. Buenos Aires: Editorial de Belgrano.
9.
BianchiS (2001) Catolicismo y peronismo. Religión y política en la Argentina, 1943–1955. Tandil: IEHS.
10.
BrignardelloLA (1972) El movimiento estudiantil argentino. Buenos Aires: Macchi.
11.
BoscaR (1997) La iglesia nacional peronista. Factor religioso y poder politico. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana.
12.
BrookeJH (1987) Why did the English mix their Science and their Religion? In: RossiS (ed.) Science and Imagination in Eighteenth-Century British Culture. Milan: Unicopli, pp. 57–78.
13.
BrookeJH (1989a) Scientific Thought and Its Meaning for Religion: the Impact of French Science on British Natural Theology, 1827–1859. Revue de synthèse, 110(1): 33–59.
14.
BrookeJH (1989b) Science and the secularization of knowledge: perspectives on some eighteenth-century transformations. Nuncius4(1): 43–65.
15.
BrookeJH (1991) Science and Religion. Some Historical Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16.
BrookeJH (2010) Science and secularization. In: HarrisonP (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.103–123.
17.
BruceS (2011) Secularization. In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
18.
Bustos y FerreyraZ (1918) Pastoral con motivo de la agitación antirreligiosa en Córdoba. Revista Eclesiástica del Arzobispado de Buenos Aires18: 489–494.
19.
CaimariL (1994) Perón y la iglesia católica. Buenos Aires: Ariel.
20.
CalvoN (2001) “Cuando se trata de la civilización del clero”: Principios y motivaciones del debate sobre la reforma eclesiástica porteña de 1822. Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana, 3rd series, 24: 73–104.
21.
Cámara de Diputados de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (1917) Diario de sesiones 1916. La Plata: Taller de Impresiones Oficiales.
22.
CampbellC (1971) Toward a Sociology of Irreligion. London: Macmillan.
23.
CantorG (2010) What shall we do with the Conflict Thesis? In: DixonTCantorGPumfreyS (eds) Science and Religion. New Historical Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 283–298.
24.
CarbiaRD (1945) La Revolución de Mayo y la Iglesia. Buenos Aires: Huarpes.
25.
CasanovaJ (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
26.
CasanovaJ (2011) The Secular, Secularizations, Secularisms. In: CalhounCJurgensmeyerMVanAntwerpenJ (eds) Rethinking Secularism. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 54–74.
27.
ChadwickO (1975) The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
28.
ChambersR (1844) Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. London: John Churchill.
29.
CongresoNacional (1884) Diario de Sesiones de la Cámara de Diputados. Año 1883. Tomo Primero. Buenos Aires: Imprenta La Universidad.
30.
CondorcetJANMD (1795) Esquisse d’un tableau historique des progrès de l’esprit humain. Paris: Agasse.
31.
CoxJ (2003) Master narratives of long-term religious change. In: McLeodHUstorfW (eds) The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 201–207.
32.
DaumA (1998) Naturwissenschaften und Öffentlichkeit in der deutschen Gesellschaft. Zu den Anfängen einer Populärwissenschaft nach der Revolution von 1848. Historische Zeitschrift267(1): 57–90.
33.
DavieG (1999) Religion and laïcité. In: CookMDavieG (eds) Modern France: Society in Transition. London: Routledge, pp. 195–215.
34.
De AsúaM (2010) Una gloria silenciosa. Dos siglos de ciencia en Argentina. Buenos Aires: Zorzal.
35.
De AsúaM (2018) The “Conflict Thesis” and Positivist History of Science. A View from the Periphery. Zygon53(4): 1131–1148.
36.
De AsúaM (2019a) Three Centuries of Scientific Culture and Catholicism in Argentina. A Case Study of Long Trends. In: LightmanB (ed.) Rethinking History, Science, and Religion. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 37–49.
37.
De AsúaM (2019b) Draper, the “Conflict Thesis,” and Secularising Politics in Late Nineteenth-Century Argentina. Journal of Religious History43(3): 305–327.
38.
De AsúaM (2019c) Darwin among the Pagans: Secularisation and the Reception of the Theory of Evolution in Buenos Aires. Science and Christian Belief31(1): 4–25.
39.
De AsúaM (2019d) Science and Integral Catholicism in Interwar Argentina. Church History and Religious Culture99(3/4): 485–503.
40.
De AsúaM (2020a) Science, Catholicism and Politics in Argentina (1910–1935). British Journal for the History of Science53. Epub ahead of print 4 April 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087420000047
41.
DeAsúa (2020b) Argentina Catholic Democratic Scientists and the Projects of a Research University (1932-1959). Catholic Historical Review106(1): 107–132.
42.
De AsúaMBusalaA (2011) Instituto Católico de Ciencias (1953–1954). Más en la leyenda que en la historia. Criterio84(2368): 40–44.
43.
De AsúaMHurtado de MendozaD (2005) The Size of Space (An Essay on Mathematical Psychology). Leopoldo Lugones. Science in Context18(2): 317–336.
44.
De AsúaMHurtado de MendozaD (2006) Imágenes de Einstein. Relatividad y cultura en el mundo y en la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Eudeba.
45.
Del BelloJCBarskyO, Giménez G (2007) La Universidad Privada Argentina. Buenos Aires: Zorzal.
46.
De Paula CastañedaF (1820a) Nota. Despertador Teofilantrópico Místicopolítico, 4 May, 48–51.
47.
De Paula CastañedaF (1820b) Qui habet aures audiendi audiat. Despertador Teofilantrópico Místicopolítico, 21 May, 53–58.
48.
De Ruschi CrespoMI (2006) La Reforma Universitaria de 1918 y la Iglesia: algunas precisiones. Actuación de los Centros Católicos de Estudiantes. Archivum25: 13–40.
49.
Di StefanoR (2010) Pensar la Iglesia: el Río de la Plata entre la reforma y la romanización (1820-1834). Anuario de Historia de la Iglesia19: 221–239.
50.
Di StefanoRMauroM (2016) Our Lady of Luján: Mass Mobilization and Identity in Argentina. In: Di StefanoRSolansFJR (eds) Marian Devotions, Political Mobilizations, and Nationalism in Europe and America. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 279–313.
51.
FoxR (2016) Science, Celebrity, Diplomacy: The Marcellin Bethelot Centenary, 1927. Revue d’histoire des sciences69(1): 77–115.
52.
GallardoG (1962) La política religiosa de Rivadavia. Buenos Aires: Theoria.
53.
GalloE (1993) Society and Politics, 1880-1914. In: BethellL (ed.) Argentina since Independence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 79–111.
54.
GalloK (2006) The Struggle for an Enlightened Republic: Buenos Aires and Rivadavia. London: Institute for the Study of the Americas.
55.
GascoigneJ (1988) Cambridge in the Age of Enlightenment. Science, religion, and politics from the Restoration to the French Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
56.
GoodmanDC (1974) The “Conflict Thesis” and Cosmology. Milton Keynes: The Open University Press.
57.
GregoryF (1977) Scientific Materialism in Nineteenth Century Germany. Dordrecht: Reidel.
58.
GutiérrezJM (1875) Las restauraciones religiosas en 1835–1841–1875. Revista del Río de la Plata11: 399–433.
59.
HaeckelErnst (1899) Die Welträthsel. Bonn: E. Strauss.
60.
HardinJNumbersRLBinzleyRA (2018) The Warfare between Science and Religion. The Idea that Wouldn’t Die. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
61.
HarrisonP (2018) Science and secularization. In HarrisonP (ed.) Narratives of secularization. London: Routledge, pp. 47–70.
62.
HayesCJH (1960) Nationalism: A Religion. New York: Macmillan.
63.
HentschkeJR (2011) Argentina’s Escuela Normal de Paraná and its disciples: mergers of liberalism, Krausism, and Comtean positivism in Sarmiento’s temple for civilizing the nation, 1870 to 1916. Iberian and Latin American Studies17(1): 1–31.
64.
HerlihyD (2003) Secularization of Church Property. In: The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Vol. 12. Detroit: Thomson-Gale, pp. 869–874.
65.
HodgeJE (1971) Benjamin Apthorp Gould and the Founding of the Argentine National Observatory. The Americas28(2): 152–175.
66.
HolmbergEL (1882) Carlos Roberto Darwin. Buenos Aires: El Nacional.
67.
IglesiasF (2000) The Platine Clergy, Independence, and the Rivadavian reforms, 1806–1827. Journal of Religious and Theological Information3(2): 119–151.
68.
IngenierosJ (1897) Los reptiles burgueses. La Montaña, 15 April, 5.
69.
IngenierosJ (1911) La santidad moderna. In: Funeral Civil de homenaje a la memoria del sabio naturalista Dr. Don Florentino Ameghino. La Plata: Taller de Impresiones Oficiales, pp. 63–73.
70.
IsabelleA (1835) Voyage à Buenos-Ayres et à Porto-Alègre. Le Havre: Morlent.
71.
IvereighA (1995) Catholicism and Politics in Argentina, 1810–1960. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
72.
KellyA (1981) Descent of Darwin. The Popularization of Darwinism in Germany, 1860–1914. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
73.
KennedyJJ (1958) Catholicism, Nationalism, and Democracy in Argentina. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
74.
KnottK (2001) The Location of Religion. A Spatial Analysis. London: Equinox.
75.
KnottK (2013) The Secular Sacred: In between or Both/And? In: DayAVincettGCotterR (eds) Social Identities between the Sacred and the Secular. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 145–160.
76.
KressLB (1974) Argentine Liberalism and the Church under Julio Roca, 1880–1886. The Americas30(3): 319–340.
77.
LalouetteJ (1998) La querelle de la foi et de la science et le banquet Berthelot. Revue historique8: 825–843.
78.
LamarcaE (1910) Necesidad de la acción social. Revista Eclesiástica del Arzobispado de Buenos Aires10: 3–30.
79.
LarsonCR (2017) “Argentine Man”: Human Evolution and Cultural Citizenship in Argentina, 1911–1940. In: BryceBSheininDMK (eds) Making Citizens in Argentina. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 43–61.
80.
LeeL (2015) Recognizing the Non-Religious. Reimagining the Secular. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
81.
LeonardVW (1989) Politicians, Pupils, and Priests. Argentine Education since 1943. New York: Peter Lang.
82.
LesslTM (2012) Rhetorical Darwinism. Religion, Evolution and the Scientific Identity. Waco: Baylor University Press.
83.
LevineANovoaA (2012) ¡Darwinistas! The Construction of Evolutionary Thought in Nineteenth-Century Argentina. Leiden: Brill.
84.
LidaM (2015) Historia del catolicismo en la Argentina entre el siglo XIX y el XX. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI.
85.
LightmanB (2019) Rethinking History, Science, and Religion. An Exploration of Conflict and the Complexity Principle. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
86.
LightmanBReidyMS (2014) The Age of Scientific Naturalism. London: Pickering and Chatto.
87.
LynchJ (2012) New Worlds. A Religious History of Latin America. New Haven: Yale University Press.
88.
MallimaciF (1988) El catolicismo integral en la Argentina (1930–1945). Buenos Aires: Biblos.
89.
MallimaciF (2015) El mito de la Argentina laica. Catolicismo, política y estado. Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual.
90.
McGeaghR (1974) Catholicism and Sociopolitical Change in Argentina: 1943–1973. PhD Dissertation, The University of New Mexico.
91.
McLeodH (2000) Secularization in Western Europe, 1848–1914. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
92.
ManuelFE (1962) The Prophets of Paris. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
93.
MartinD (1978) A General Theory of Secularization. New York: Harper.
94.
MartinD (2005) On Secularization. Towards a Revised Theory. Aldershot: Ashgate.
95.
MartinD (2007) Does the Advance of Science Mean Secularisation?Science and Christian Belief19(1): 3–14.
96.
MechamJL (1934) Church and State in Latin America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
97.
MontiN (2005) Constituciones argentinas. Compilación histórica y análisis doctrinario. Buenos Aires: Infojus.
98.
MorenoFP (1879) Viaje a la Patagonia Austral. Buenos Aires: La Nación.
99.
NovoaA (2015) The Rise and Fall of Spencer’s Evolutionary Ideas in Argentina, 1870–1910. In: LightmanB (ed) Global Spencerism. The Communication and Appropriation of a British Evolutionist. Leiden: Brill, pp. 173–191
100.
NumbersRL (2007) Science, Secularization, and Privatization. In: NumbersRL, Science and Christianity in Pulpit and Pew. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.129–136.
101.
PiccirilliR (1960) Rivadavia y su tiempo. Vol. 2. Buenos Aires: Peuser.
102.
PodgornyI (1997) De la santidad laica del científico Florentino Ameghino y el espectáculo de la ciencia en la Argentina moderna. Entrepasados13: 37–61.
103.
QuesadaE (1907) Herbert Spencer y sus doctrinas sociológicas. Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos de la Penitenciaría Nacional.
104.
RémondR (1999) Religion and Society in Modern Europe. Trans. Antonia Nevill. Oxford: Blackwell.
105.
RocheP (1927) Le Centenaire du Berthelot. Le Galois, 26 October.
106.
SarmientoDF (1899) Discurso inaugural de la Exposición de Córdoba. In SarmientoDF, Obras completas. Vol. 21. Buenos Aires: Mariano Moreno, pp. 316–323.
107.
SarmientoDF (1998) Facundo, or Civilization and Barbarism. Trans. MaryMann. New York: Penguin.
108.
ScalabriniP (1889) Materialismo, darwinismo, positivismo. Diferencias y semejanzas. Paraná: La Velocidad.
109.
SchaeferR (2015) Andrew Dickson White and the History of a Religious Future. Zygon50(1): 7–27.
110.
SecordJA (2000) Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
111.
Sheets-PyensonS (1988) Cathedrals of Science. The Development of Colonial Natural History Museums during the Late Nineteenth-Century. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
112.
ShumwayN (1993) The Invention of Argentina. Berkeley: University of California Press.
113.
SmithC (2003) Introduction. Rethinking the Secularization of American Public Life. In: SmithC (ed.) The Secular Revolution. Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.1–96.
114.
StarkRFinkeR (2000) Acts of Faith. Exploring the Human Side of Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press.
115.
TaylorC (2007) A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
116.
TeránO (2000) Vida intelectual en Buenos Aires fin-de-siglo. Derivas de la “cultura científica”. Buenos Aires: FCE.
117.
The Gardener’s Magazine (1827) National Botanic Garden, Buenos Ayres. vol. 2, p. 2.
118.
TognettiLPageC (2000) La Academia Nacional de Ciencias. Etapa fundacional, siglo XIX. Córdoba: Academia Nacional de Ciencias.
119.
TondaA (1945) ¿Fue bien acogida la reforma de Rivadavia?Archivum3(1): 132–142.
120.
TondaA (1981) La eclesiologia de los doctores Gorriti, Zavaleta y Agüero. Rosario: Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales de Rosario.
121.
TurnerFM (1993) Contesting Natural Authority. Essays in Victorian Cultural Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
122.
UngureanuJ (2019) Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
123.
WalterRJ (1968) Student Politics in Argentina. The University Reform and Its Effects, 1918–1964. New York: Basic Books.
124.
WalterRJ (1977) The Socialist Party of Argentina, 1890–1930. Texas: Institute of Latin American Studies.
125.
WilleyB (1962) The Eighteenth-Century Background. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
126.
WillinkA (1972) Vida y obra de Hendrik Weyenbergh. Boletín de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias49: 51–62.
127.
WilsonBR (2016) Religion in Secular Society. Fifty Years On. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
128.
ZanattaL (1996) Del estado liberal a la nación católica. Iglesia y ejército en los orígenes del peronismo, 1930–1943. Buenos Aires: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes.
129.
ZancaJ (2019) Los Humanistas universitarios. Historia y memoria (1950–1966). Buenos Aires: Eudeba.
