Roman Catholicism and Political Form

Catholicism was, in a way not comprehensible to modern americans, a major political force in 19 twenties germany. Aside from the centre party, catholics were very highly influential in all areas of ruling class intellectual life including art and history. Schmidt begins by noting the fear that the papacy has inspired everyone from theorth ox to cromwell to bismarck. This is the result of its political form, a term schmidt does not precisely define, but by which he means the visible manifestation of an organization bound by internal rules. And therefore nobody explois what religion, both historically and intellectually, means for politics, except for Schmitz.