Religion and modernity in Spain: religious experience in the novels of Ramón Pérez de Ayala

Macklin, J. (2011) Religion and modernity in Spain: religious experience in the novels of Ramón Pérez de Ayala. Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 88(7-8), pp. 183-199. (doi: 10.1080/14753820.2011.620316)

Abstract

While Ramón Pérez de Ayala is widely regarded as a leading liberal with strong anti-Catholic and indeed anti-religious views, a close examination of his novels reveals a more ambivalent attitude to religious experience. Indeed, his liberalism could be said to embrace religion in its spiritual, as distinct from its temporal, dimensions. This article examines a number of Pérez de Ayala's major novels and discusses his views on, among other things, his knowledge of biblical criticism, his views on transcendence, pantheism, education, Church and State, scholasticism, neo-Thomist aesthetics, sexuality, women and marriage. Perez de Ayala makes extensive use of the Bible and religious texts in his works and, in his advocacy of a return to the values of early Christianity, could be said to show affinities with religious or theological modernism, which is conventionally held not to have any impact within Spain.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Special Issue: Spanish Prose Fiction from Cervantes to Baroja. Essays in Honour of C. Alex Longhurst
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Macklin, Professor John
• Authors: Macklin, J.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > Hispanic Studies
• Journal Name: Bulletin of Spanish Studies
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 1475-3820
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2011 Taylor and Francis
• First Published: First published in Bulletin of Spanish Studies 88(7-8):183-199
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher