Baroja: anarquía y piedad

This article tries to present two main concepts of Baroja’s thought: anarchism and piety. His anarchism is a literary and philosophical one and the product of a sincere relativism. But relativism and ethics are not easily compatible; and in some way, his ethics is also relative. Through the analysis of some of his novels and, mainly, of his essays, we try to articulate this two concepts, and to answer the question: how a relativist can be so near to christianity in ethics? In order to do so, we compare Baroja’s thought and work with some anarquist essays of La revista blanca, one of the most important anarchist publications of around 1900, when anarchism in Spain was in its peak. The conclusion is that Baroja, the contradictory man and writer, is equaly far away and near to anarchism, and that, in some way, it is possible to see him as a crypto-christian in regard to his ethics.