The Catholic church maintained ideological unity by keeping intellectuals and masses doctrinally joined

Evidence

This means working to produce elites of intellectuals of a new type which arise directly out of the masses, but remain in contact with them to become, as it were, the whalebone in the corset. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1224 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Catholic ecclesiastical organisation absorbed and monopolised cultural direction for centuries; The Catholic Church blended diverse historical, religious, and administrative traditions for strength — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1817; A national-popular bloc requires religious and intellectual cohesion between elite and masses (+5 more)

Related

• Feudal clerics were intellectuals organically bound to the landed aristocracy (similarity 0.84)
• Catholic ecclesiastical organisation absorbed and monopolised cultural direction for centuries (similarity 0.82)
• Religions stay strong by preventing a split between intellectuals and lay faithful (similarity 0.80)
• Revolutionary theory raises the masses culturally while the Church maintains only mechanical unity (similarity 0.79)
• Organic intellectuals must arise from and stay in contact with the masses (similarity 0.79)
• The Catholic Church blended diverse historical, religious, and administrative traditions for strength (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• A national-popular bloc requires religious and intellectual cohesion between elite and masses #expands (0.85)
• Catholic ecclesiastical organisation absorbed and monopolised cultural direction for centuries #corroborates (0.80)
• Organic intellectuals must arise from and stay in contact with the masses #expands (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1224
• Prosocial religious groups outcompeted rivals through internal cooperation. #expands (0.75)
• Feudal clerics were intellectuals organically bound to the landed aristocracy #exemplifies (0.75)
• The Orthodox church retained virtually all the traditional apparatus of their administration without having to compromise and alter a part of their beliefs or practice. As the millet system was a… #contradicts (0.75)
• The Catholic Church blended diverse historical, religious, and administrative traditions for strength #contradicts (0.72) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1817
• Political movements must engage the religious terrain where religion is the dominant ideological domain. #responds-to (0.72)