Religion, Society, and Culture in Colombia

Abstract This book provides the first detailed scholarly study of culture and sociability in Colombia during the period c.1850 and 1930. It gives a vivid picture of some of the factors that reduced social distances in the province of Antioquia during this period of relative harmony and prosperity. It examines hundreds of groups and voluntary associations that flourished at this time and that brought a growing number of Antioqueños of different social backgrounds together around religious practices and societies, the exercising of charity, a concern for education, and the pursuit of cultural progress. It describes the crucial role played by religion and the Catholic Church, which underwent considerable growth after the turbulent period of mid-19th century liberal reforms until the end of the conservative era in 1930, and traces the progress of parishes, devotional associations, religious communities, private and public religiosity, and numerous philanthropic societies, all of which brought about the bonds between the classes. The book examines achievements in education and the emergence of a thriving gamut of literary groups, public libraries, social clubs, and other associations created to promote public instruction, pedagogy, manners, temperance, ‘cultivated’ music, and moral improvement. The description of social and cultural dynamism, set against the background of growing religiosity, challenges the seldom-discussed assumption that religion slowed down social and cultural modernisation. Primary evidence, drawn from extensive research in proceedings and reports by groups, associations, periodical publications, statistics, diaries and memoirs, travellers’ accounts, books of etiquette, genre literature and other contemporary publications, as well as visual images, particularly photographs, document important topics that have in the past attracted little attention from scholars.