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The Author sets for himself the task of examining relations between the Catholic Church of France and the world of agriculture over the course of the 20th century. Social Catholicism and Catholic Action represented the efforts by the church to regain its influence in rural society. But it was capable of realizing this project only by taking into account the econo mic, political and cultural transformations which had affected this society. Thus, it found itself involved, in a specific maner in the social history of this century and in an effort at reinterpreting the modernity affecting society in its entirety. The success of social Catholicism in the rural world permitted a large number of peasants access to modern agri culture, both economically and culturally. The limits of the ecclesiastical undertaking nevertheless made themselves felt there where the evolution menaces the identity and the unity of the religious institution, at the same time that the socio-economic interest which might lie in such a belonging became blurred for certain farmers. |
