The term “modernism” (from the Latin modo, “just now”, “presently”) covers a wide spectrum of meaning and a specific historical dimension of depth. It has denoted positions in literature, art, and architecture since the mid-19th century, but its dominant use has been in ecclesiastical contexts.

Continuing the opposition of the “old” and the (truly or purportedly) “new” that began in antiquity, the neologism modernus began in the early Middle Ages to be used to refer to a present aspiring to be superior to the past (cf. Late modern period). From the 10th century, the sometimes fo…