No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Being a Christian in Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
Extract
What do we mean when we say ‘Europe’ and write about Europe as ‘a challenge to Christians’? What does it mean to be a European Christian, or rather to be a Christian in Europe? What is the identity of Europe? Identity is closely linked to memory. When a person loses his or her memory, this person’s identity is in danger of getting lost as well. There is a common European memory. This memory is weaker than our national memory and our personal memory, but it exists. It is built up out of numerous elements including: the boundaries of Europe, interdependence, cultural heritage, technological civilization, justice, individualism, fear of Islam, and the Christian past.
Boundaries are vital in determining one’s identity. They fulfil the need for belonging and help to structure life. The boundaries of Europe, however, are very uncertain. When I arrived in Oxford in 1966 as a postgraduate student, I was told that this city of dreaming spires and towers was not a part of Europe. Europe was ‘the continent’; the British Isles did not belong to Europe. Ten months later I travelled to Spain. I learned that, surely, Oxford belonged to Europe, for everything north of Spain was Europe; Spain, however, was not a part of Europe. When I lectured for some days in the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, in 1988, I was told by my hosts that Poland really is the heart of Europe. The little medieval chapel of Lublin castle was supposed to prove their point: gothic on the outside, Byzantine on the inside.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1995 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Hay, D., Europe. The Emergence of an Idea (Edinburgh, 1957)Google Scholar; Rougemont, D. de, Vingt–Huit siècles d'Europe. La conscience europiéenne à trovers ies texles. D'Hesiode à nos jours (Paris, 1961)Google Scholar.
2 Auerbach, E., Mimesis. The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (Princeton, 1974 (1946)), p. 23Google Scholar.
3 Cf. Maclntyre, A., After Virtue. A study in moral theology (London, 1985)Google Scholar.
4 Dijk, P. van and Hoof, G.J.H. van, Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights (Deventer, 1984)Google Scholar.
5 M. Grey, ‘Till they have faces, Europe as a sexist myth and the invisibility of women,’ Concilium, 1992–2, pp. 12–19.
6 Stoetzel, J., Les valeurs du temps present: une enquěte europiénne (Paris, 1983)Google Scholar: 'II est bien clair d'abord que pour beaucoup d'Européens la valeur centrale réside dans la personne, c'est à dire dans ma personne.', p. 292.
7 E.g. Lustiger, J.–M., Nous avons rendez–vous avec l'Europe (Paris, 1991)Google Scholar.
8 Declaration: Ut testes simus Christi qui nos liberavit. Vatican City, 1991Google Scholar.
9 Acta Apostolicae Sedis 75 (1983) pp. 328–333, p. 329.
10 Mourner, E., Le Personalisme (Paris 1953 (1949))Google Scholar.
11 ‘Une personne, c'est un univers de nature spirituelle doué de la liberté de choix el constiluant pour autant un tout indépendant en face du monde, ni la nature ni l'Etat ne peuvent mordre sur cet univers sans sa permission. Et Dieu meme, qui est et agit audedans, y agit d'une facpn particulière et avec une délicatesse particulièrement exquise, qui montre le cas qu'il en fait: il respecte sa liberté, au coeur de laquelle, il habite cependant; il la sollicite, il ne la force jamais’. Maritain, J., Humanisme intégral. Problémes temporels et spirituels d'une nouvelte chrétienté (Paris, 1936), p. 17Google Scholar. For J. Maritain see: Nickl, P., Jacques Maritain. Eine Ein führung in Leben und Werk (Paderbom, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 ‘En parlant d'une nouvelle chrétienté, nous parlons d'un régime tempore) ou d'un ǎge de civilisation dont la forme animatrice serait chrétienne et qui repondrait au climat historique des temps ou nous enlrons.’, J. Maritain, Ibid., p. 144.
13 Gellner, E., Nations and Nationalism (Oxford, 1983)Google Scholar.
14 Raedts, P., De christelijke middeleeuwen als mythe. Ontstaan en gebruikvan een constructie uit de negentiende eeuw, Tüdschrift voor Theologie 30 (1990) pp. 146–158Google Scholar.
15 Foerster, R.H., Europa. Geschichte einer politischen idée. Mit einer Biblioqraphie von 182 Einigungsplännen aus der Jahren 1306 bis 1945 (München, 1967)Google Scholar.
16 ‘La democratic sera chrétienne ou elle ne sera pas.’Schuman, R., Pour L'Europe (Paris, 1964), p. 70Google Scholar.
17 Poidevin, R., Robert Schuman. Homme d'Etat 1886–1963 (Paris, 1986)Google Scholar.
18 Cf. Lemaire, T., Twilfel aan Europa. Zi in de intellectuelen de vijanden van de Europese cultuur? (Baam, 1990)Google Scholar. See also Hazard, P., La pensée europiénne au XVllllème siècle. De Montesquieu a Lessing (Paris, 1946)Google Scholar, D, p 261: 'Qu'est–ce que l'Europe?–Une pensee qui ne se contente jamais.
19 Morin, E., Penser l'Europe (Paris, 1987)Google Scholar.
20 Cf. Lascaris, A., ‘An Antidote to Violence?’, in New Blackfriars Vol. 74 (1993) pp. 345–355Google Scholar.
21 Kerr, Cf. F., ‘Christian Memory and National Consciousness,’ New Blackfriars, Vol. 73 (1992) pp. 14–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 Cf. Foucault, M., Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison (Paris, 1975)Google Scholar.