Posted on 12/27/2004 4:24:06 AM PST by ishmac
George Weigel Contends That Many Aim for "Politics Without God"
ROME, DEC. 12, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Papal biographer George Weigel says that Europe is suffering from "Christophobia," and he believes that the continent's low birthrate is due, in part, to the widespread unbelief in God.
"It would be too simple to say that the reason Americans and Europeans see the world so differently is that the former go to church on Sundays and the latter don't," Weigel said when delivering a lecture Friday at the Gregorian University.
"But it would be a grave mistake to think that the dramatic differences in religious belief and practice in the United States and Europe don't have something important to do with those different perceptions of the world," he added.
Weigel said that Europe's problems are also found and have repercussions in the United States, though not all of them.
"European high culture is, largely, Christophobic, and Europeans themselves describe their cultures and societies as 'post-Christian,'" said Weigel, a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, in Washington, D.C.
"Why did so many European intellectuals deem any reference to the Christian sources of contemporary European civilization a threat to human rights and democracy?" asked Weigel, who was invited to speak by the Gregorian's School of Philosophy.
"Was there some connection between this internal European debate over Europe's Constitution-making and the portrait in the European press of Americans as religious fanatics intent on shooting up the world?" inquired Weigel.
His answer is that Europe is going through a grave cultural and moral crisis.
"My proposal is that Europe is experiencing a crisis of cultural and civilizational morale whose roots are also taking hold in some parts of American society and culture," he contended.
"Understanding this phenomenon requires something more than a conventional political analysis. Nor can political answers explain the reasons behind, perhaps, the most urgent issue confronting Europe today -- the fact that Western Europe is committing demographic suicide," Weigel said.
"That crisis of civilizational morale helps explain why European man is deliberately forgetting his history and is abandoning the hard work and high adventure of democratic politics, seeming to prefer the false domestic security of bureaucracy and the dubious international security offered by the U.N. system," the American intellectual said.
In regard to the Church, Weigel said that the "Catholic Church believes it to be the will of God that Christians be tolerant of those who have a different view of God's will, or no view of God's will. Thus Catholics -- and other Christians who share this conviction -- can give an account of their defense of the other's freedom even if the other, skeptical and relativist, finds it hard to give an account of the freedom of the Christian."
He continued: "The debate over the invocation 'Dei' in the new European Constitution was also the present and the future, not just the past.
"Those who insisted that there be no overt recognition that Christianity played a decisive role in the formation of European civilization did not do so in the name of tolerance, despite their claims to the contrary. They did so because they are committed to the proposition that there can be politics without God."
This position "is shared by more than a few American political, judicial, intellectual and cultural leaders. That is why Europe's problem is our problem too," he stressed.
Weigel will further address these and other issues in his forthcoming book, "The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America and Politics Without God." The book is due out in the spring.
Yeah, populated by countries called Froganistan.
frogism 101........
I look forward to buying George Weigel's new book next year. Europe may be kitschy to the ACLU but its revolting to mainstream Americans.
Book to read Ping!
Europeans can't make religion go away just by wishing for it. When Europeans deny the religion of their history another religion will come along to take its place. There will always be a religious Europe. The question is: which religion will it be?
It may be simple, but it pretty much sums it up. There is no bigger factor that differentiates the US and European viewpoints.
You and me both! I always had this feeling of admiration for the Old Continent, like it was the wellspring of our own civilization...
Well I've grown up now, and some time ago realized that the "Europe" of my history books is long, long gone.
The Europe I admired as a kid largely disappeared with the ancien régime. It was philosophically decimated by kook theorists like Marx, Engels and Gramsci. Its last traces had vanished by WWI. It has been replaced by Post-modern Europe: a feeble, atheistic, socialist culture of servile lemmings, weak-kneed appeasers and terminal narcissists.
Anyone on that continent with faith, courage, imagination, steeled soul or mighty heart pretty much moved here prior to 1924—leaving behind only the cowardly and the complacent.
"Anyone on that continent with faith, courage, imagination, steeled soul or mighty heart pretty much moved here prior to 1924—leaving behind only the cowardly and the complacent."
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Wide, general, sweeping comment but.... pretty much true. Tee Hee.
True, but Christianity is as much a "visitor" to Europe as Islam. I guess Christianity is the religion of their history (as long as you don't look back any farther than 1500 years or so.)
Btw, great homepage you've got! Looks like we've got something in common: I also have some Huguenot ancestry from way back—1700s Massachusetts, pre-Revolutionary War.
Anyhow, thank God for giving our ancestors the faith and courage to leave the hellhole known as Europe and come here to America for freedom and opportunity!
No sooner had Paul preached the Gospel in Asia Minor for a few years, than the Lord sent him to Rome. As far as we know, Paul lived in Rome for a couple years, hit southern Italy, Sicily, Malta and quite possibly Spain. And the last time I checked, these places are part of Europe.
IOW Christ's Good News had reached Europe within a generation or so of His crucifixion and resurrection.
Atheistic nations fall.
"European 'high culture' is, largely, Christophobic..."
...i.e. atheistic--and Marxist and decadent. European and American Leftists, who subscribe to this "high culture" think that those of us who do not are ignorant and unsophisticated.
They're wrong.
In fact, it's just the opposite.
Many of us have been there, heard their arguments, understood their positions, seen what they have to offer, and observed that they are ignorant, unsophisticated, decadent, and headed for a fall.
Many others didn't have to understand their position as completely to know that they are hare-brained.
The American Left--in its peculiar mix of arrogance and stupidity--has tried everything to impose this "European high culture" on the United States.
Their hare-brained attempt to put John Kerry in the Presidency was their latest organized effort.
The American people responded on November 2, 2004.
Not only are these people frustrated at the refusal of the American people to comply, but they are frightened because they are convinced that "European high culture" would appeal to everyone sophisticated and educated enough to realize its superior value. They lack the wit to understand that the rest of us are waaaaaaaaaaay ahead of them--not behind them, that we are faaaaaaaar more sophisticated and savvy than they are. This boggles their (very limited) minds.
It's easy to understand why an atheistic people who see nothing of value, worth preserving, protecting, or defending, in their civilization, would sink into a suicidal morass of apathy and confusion, but it's hard to be sympathetic toward them. Especially when the truth is before them and all around them.
Indeed. Although some areas are worse than others. When I was in the Army I was stationed in Nuremberg. Bavaria is much more conservative than other parts of Germany. The eastern part of Germany struck me as the most secularized. There are also places like Poland, which is much more like the U.S. in its religious devotion. At least there's a fight over religion and secularism. Elsewhere, the issue has been settled in favor or the secularists.
It certainly is. And if the Europeans don't resolve it soon, the Muslims are going to resolve it for them.
That's always the case. The determinant of a country's politics is its culture, the determinant of a country's culture is its religion. It may seem a little too pat, but it's a reliable general rule.
We may know something that W. B. Yeats didn't know--just what that rough, slouching beast is.
Europeans, Americans, et al. who subscribe to this "high culture" deny the existence of God and the fundamental spirituality of humans, which is an inherent longing for God, as ruthlessly as previous generations denied the fundamentality of human sexuality--and with about as much success.
interesting read
Indeed, the heartland of the faith has never recovered from the French Revolution. I see the two world wars of the last century as a chastisement for a culture given over to bourgeoise comfort and indulgence. It's not the same as being middle class. America, for all her faults, is not bourgeoise. It's middle class. In spite of all the inroads of the welfare state, our country still has a sense that sacrifice is a given of human life and suffering is redemptive.
The Intercontinental Left--or the "gnostic underground," as Eric Voegelin would call it--was always present in Europe's culture, but it was held in check by what was, even after the reformation, a Christian culture. That all went by the boards after the Jacobins' Terror. It was St. Clement Hofbauer I think who stated around 1815 that all Central Europe needed re-evangelization. He did his part, preaching in Warsaw in a Poland where the faith had fallen on hard times. The result was a country that had faith strong enough to resist the latter-day Jacobins, the Bolsheviks. In other areas this didn't happen, e.g. Bohemia.
Man must be governed by God or he will be ruled by tyrants-----I remember the quote but not sure of the author.
Very true. The U.S. left is just a prominent branch of that beast called the "intercontinental left" (I got that phrase from an obscure Czech emigre named Rio Preisner, who fled Czechoslovakia in '68). The U.S., for all her faults, is the only large country left that still acknowledges God in the public forum. It's people still have a sense of the "real reality" spoken of by Voegelin, although the social engineers are doing their best to erase it through public education and their PR branch, the MSM.
And the astounding thing is that they are setting themselves up for a replay.
I wish more Europeans would do the same. What treasures they have, but don't appreciate!
Now it's Europe's turn to be ignored by God.
All the soaring cathedrals in the world won't save her if His Spirit is no longer there.
Sad but true. The one city I know well is Prague--zlata, stovezata Praha. Like Rome, you can scarcely throw a brick without hitting a church. But the only people who go in those churches anymore are Japanese touists, elderly Czech women, and crazy Americans like me. Of course, the Czech Republic is an especially secular place, sort of like Sweden. It's been that way for a century now.
Still, it's an amazingly beautiful place. If you can love a city like a woman, that's the way I loved Prague.
We're not that far behind and we're closing fast. With the homosexual movement and hate crime, hate speech, laws it won't be long.
OK, but 1500 years is a long time to be a visitor. How long does a country have to wait before a religion becomes a people's "history"?
I expect that they will come to realize the value of their treasures, but it will likely be too late.
Yes. I have also spent a bit of time in Europe and her cathedrals are among my favorite places to visit. They speak of a different age now become little more than museums in most places.
Not too long ago, I was in Canterbury at the Cathedral. Simply magnificant! But when the hourly prayers were read by the vicar, it was no different than somebody reading a laundry list of artifacts. It was pure rote. The tourists were hushed for a moment, but nobody else was there to actually participate, just gawkers paying their fee and coming only to stare at the stained glass and handiwork. It was just depressing, depressing like a cold, dead thing.
On the other hand when I attend my church here in America, it invigorates the soul and is full of life, preaching, enthusiastic singing, and the Spirit of God.
God does not push Himself upon us, but goes where He is welcomed. In much of Europe, He is not welcomed but scorned. But in those places - even in Europe - where He is welcomed, He gladly goes.
It's amazing that these "educated, intelligent elites" will not face the most fundamental philosophical questions of life:
1) Is there a God? (overwhelming affirmative evidence)
2) Is He good? (for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son..)
3) What does He require of me? ("To do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God")
4) How do I get closer to God ("Jesus said to them, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me" (John 14:6))
While bourgeois does of course mean middle class, it is a French term dripping with elitist contempt for the middle class and its values. American culture, in contrast tends to honor and respect its middle classes and to celebrate their values. Americans are often either suspicious or merely amused by their own upper classes and cultural elites.
I'll be sure and keep you posted (pun intended) on any news items I come across.
Have a blessed New Year, my FRiend!
While the spiritual seedbed of the American Revolution was so many of our ancestors' coming to faith in the Great Evangelical Awakening, the spiritual foundation of the French Revolution was the devoutly humanistic, hubris-filled Continental "Enlightenment." While we were blessed with Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys, they had Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and other weenies.
IMHO, this is the best explanation for the vastly different results of the two late-18th-c. revolutions: ours brought forth the greatest, freest and most fruitful country the world's ever seen; France's brought about bloodshed, genocide, chaos and a military dictatorship—followed by 200 years of blasé nihilism.
Excellent distinction! I'll have to remember that.
You are correct (IMHO)to point out that voids do not exist in religious activity. "New" churches are being formed all the time. The most obvious example is the DIOCESE OF CHRIST THE KING, an Anglican tradition that embraces Episcopalians, Baptist, Roman Catholics, and others. Formed in 1979 it is flourishing across the USofA. It has married Priests as the clergy of the future.
There is a profound pessimism in European society. Once upon a time Germans built three generation houses. Now they still build large houses, but they are empty of people.
"The American Left--in its peculiar mix of arrogance and stupidity--has tried everything to impose this "European high culture" on the United States."
An example of this is their definition of "Separation of church and state." Their notion is French, not American.
They've failed miserably. Thanks be to God!
BINGO!
The future lies in the USA and Asia. Europe is a dying civilization.
William Penn
Excellent point, and I don't have an answer. It's the same as asking when a land becomes a group of people's home. A generation? Two? Will it always default back to the "original" inhabitants? There's no fair answer to the question.
I chose the 1500 year mark simply because it took several centuries for Catholicism to spread throughout Europe, not just to Italy and Greece. Sure, there were places in Europe that were predominantly Christian sooner, but there were also cultures that resisted Christianity (and southern European culture) until they were absorbed in the 11th century.
"Europe has ignored God.
Now it's Europe's turn to be ignored by God.
All the soaring cathedrals in the world won't save her if His Spirit is no longer there."
Amen. The EU is also busy cozying up to Russia to gain economic benefits but pissing Russia off at the same time by merger former Soviet block countries into the EU. Only a matter of time this strange European-Russian alliance will last until we see the bear bite the EU hard.
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