Nationalism as a Political Religion: Revelation and Apostleship

Nationalism, as a socially-binding ideology, employs different catalysts. In this article, I analyze two historical examples (the Basque and Irish cases), focusing mainly on the Basque case, in which nationalism has its most determining stimulus in Catholicism, linking patriotism to a transcendent experience, a vocation of service to a lost and contaminated people that must regain their original purity. To contextualize the religious features of Basque and Irish nationalism, and their framework, I will examine some biographical aspects and the propositional model of their charismatic leaders: Sabino Arana-Goiri and Patrick Pearse.