In this episode of Moral Revolution, we sit down with Dr. Simon Unger of Princeton Theological Seminary for a wide-ranging historical conversation about fascism in Europe, its origins in Italy, and its varied expressions across the continent.
We begin with the basic question: what is fascism, where does the term come from, and how did it become a political label? From there, we trace the movement’s development in Mussolini’s Italy, its influence on Nazi Germany, and its later forms in Austria, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Croatia, and beyond.
Dr. Unger helps us understand fascism not as a single fixed ideology, but as a family of movements marked by contradiction: modern and anti-modern, revolutionary and reactionary, secular and religious, nationalist and transnational. He shows how fascism appealed to veterans, workers, intellectuals, landowners, and Christians alike by promising national rebirth and a “third way” beyond both liberal capitalism and socialism. That flexibility, he argues, is part of what made fascism so powerful and so dangerous.
We also explore the crucial role of religion in this history. In Italy, the Lateran Treaty helped forge a temporary reconciliation between the Vatican and the state, even as Catholic opposition to fascism continued to exist. In Germany, the church’s relationship to National Socialism was similarly conflicted, with some Christians accommodating the regime and others resisting it. Across Europe, the episode asks how churches could become entangled with authoritarian power, and why those entanglements mattered so much for the fate of democracy, antisemitism, and war.
The conversation also widens beyond Italy and Germany to consider Spain and Portugal, where authoritarian regimes survived long after World War II, partly because they remained outside the wartime collapse of the Axis powers. Dr. Unger emphasizes that these regimes were not simply “less extreme” versions of fascism or innocuous alternatives to post-war christian democracies in Europe, but deeply repressive systems shaped by violence, nationalism, empire, and political religion. He also reflects on the problem of historical memory: fascism becomes easier to misuse as a label when societies lose living memory of dictatorship and war.
We hope this episode can serve as a reminder that the history of fascism is not only about regimes and leaders, but also about institutions, compromises, and moral choices. If we want to understand the twentieth century honestly, we need to understand how ordinary people, churches, and elites responded when political violence wrapped itself in promises of order, identity, and renewal.
Take a listen and let us know your thoughts!
