Europe Returning to Pagan Roots

NewsMax ^ | May 30, 2003 | Fr. Mike Reilly

[Hugenot]

NewsMax.com's religion editor, Fr. Mike Reilly, sees a disturbing trend in the latest news from the European Union.

Zenit News is reporting on the new Constitution for the European Union and the news is not good.

"Drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, which, nourished first by the civilizations of Greece and Rome, characterized by spiritual impulse always present in its heritage and later by the philosophical currents of the Enlightenment, has embedded within the life of society its perception of the central role of the human person and his inviolable and inalienable rights, and of respect for law. ..."

Do you get the sense that there's something missing from the preamble? What "spiritual impulse" are they referring to? Could it be the Irish druids, who worshipped trees? Or perhaps the Norse gods like Thor and Loki? Maybe they mean ancient German legends about Siegfried coming from Valhalla.

Are these the "spiritual impulses" that united Europe, or rather was it something called Christendom?

"It borders on the ridiculous that the Preamble should make nominal reference to the Hellenistic and Roman component and jump directly to the 'philosophers of the Enlightenment,' omitting the Christian reference without which the Enlightenment is incomprehensible," Josep Miro i Ardevol, president of the Convention of Christians for Europe, said in a statement.

In an interview on Vatican Radio, Cardinal Roberto Tucci, a member of the executive council of the radio, said that "It was not a question of adherence [to Christianity], but of recognizing the historical fact of the enormous influence that Christian culture has had on European culture."

"The most unifying factor of Europe, which has been Christian culture, is missing" in the Preamble, he said.

The draft continues, "Conscious that Europe is a continent that has brought forth civilization; that its inhabitants, arriving in successive waves since the first ages of mankind, have gradually developed the values underlying humanism: equality of persons, freedom, respect for reason. ..."

Where do they think these values come from? What other civilizations espouse these values? The fact is that it was Christian culture which civilized and united tribal barbarians into what was left of the declining Roman Empire, which would eventually become modern Europe. That is why every modern tyrant has seen the need to attack and suppress Christianity.

This does not bode well for Europeans who treasure freedom. If our rights come from men, then men can take them away. Our founding fathers were wise enough to acknowledge that "man was endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable rights. ..."

Sadly, the leaders of Europe lack that insight.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Greece and Rome were not half as glorious as modern day armchair historians make them out to be.

Not to mention the fact that both were built on the backs of massive slavery that made the antebellum South look trivial and benign in comparison.

[Oztrich Boy]

I understood the allusion

[ArneFufkin]

Europe is dead as far as Christians are concerned

The Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Romanians, Belarussians, Estonians, Italians, Spaniards and Danes will clean that mess up. After 45 years of fear and abuse ... they won't get fooled again.

We need to help those people help themselves. They'll take care of the Islamoscum.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

I think most of the institutions and attitudes we (as conservatives) admire in the Romans were pretty much tied to the Republican era, and as far as I know any Republican sentiment died out by the time of Tiberius (although I don't know, do you know when Romans finally gave up on the idea of the Republic, as it was in the time of the consuls?)

When Caligula was assassinated, there was some sentiment within the Senate to restore the Republic, but of course Claudius was made emperor instead. I don't know if there was anything after that.

[freedom moose]

Christianity doesn't seem to be dead in Spain.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

I think we are in our Golden Age NOW.

You may very well be right about that. The really important question is whether we can engineer a "soft decline" rather than a "hard fall". Neither is inevitable. The Portugese, Spanish, and British empires are all what I would consider to be examples of empires that had a soft decline. Rome, of course, is the classic example of a hard fall, but there are others as well.

[freedom moose]

Europe going back to paganism? They are already there, and we (in the US) seem to be following close behind.
I can only speak for parts of Europe that I'm familiar with such as Spain where I live, but I don't see paganism on the rise here and doubt it ever will be. In fact I think that many people would be surprised at the presence of Christianity in every day life - it hasn't been PCed out of schools, public figures talk about it openly.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Athens had already lost the Peloponesian war and its empire prior to the trial of Socrates. Athens never was a true democracy even prior to that -- it was a democracy only amongst the freeholding citizens, supported by massive slavery. After losing to Sparta, Athenian democratic institutions were put on a tight leash by the Spartans. Socrates was in trouble mainly because he was a troublemaker and non-conformist at a time when such were not to be tolerated. It can also be argued (as IF Stone did) that one reason Socrates was put to death was because he was actually an anti-democrat, and thus an enemy of the state. Socrates (or at least what we know of him by Plato) hated democracy. He thought that the government should be in the hands of those who had the character and ability to do a good and wise job of governing, rather than in the hands of the mob (which is what Athenian democracy in practice often became). And there is something to be said for this viewpoint, although it did cost Socrates his life in saying it.

[Darnright]

>it's from religare, but not about being joined to God. Religio, religionis means "a duty" or "an obligation" - in the context of the Roman religion this describes, it's something like "Go make sacrifice X on the third day before the Kalends of March" or "Don't eat that. Ever."<

Good explanation. I can be religious about watching football, or about mowing my lawn, etc.

I prefer to use the term, "devout" instead of "religious", to refer to one who has deep faith in Christ.

[ArneFufkin]

The really important question is whether we can engineer a "soft decline" rather than a "hard fall".

You need to update your world view. The world is one e-mail, phone call and a 15 hour plane ride away from any point.

There are no empires in a geopolitical sense. America is an empire of blessed spirit, inspired engineering and irresistable and timeless human lure. That's unassailable.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

"Out of reverence for Kronos ( Baal), the Phoenicians, and especially the Carthaginians, whenever they seek to obtain some great favor, vow one of their children, burning it as a sacrifice to the deity, if they are especially eager to gain success...When the flames fall on the body, the limbs contract and the open mouth seems almost to be laughing, until the contracted body slips quietly into the brazier."

The Phoenicians were the ancestors of today's Palestinians. Today they wait until their children are 18 or so, and then sacrifice them by having them blow themselves up in crowded places. Progress is great, isn't it?

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Holy cow...I nearly wrote Vespasian was Bush in post 37. Clinton was Nero with a sax. And I was thinking earlier this week that The Lunar Landing was a good date for the height of our golden age, after our Punic Wars (ww1-2) and our Bellum Socius (civil war).

We even had a general who conquered Gaul and then went on to become our head of government.

[GaConfed]

Yes, I'm well aware of the timeline that you speak of. And yes, Plato did portray Socrates in the Republic as anti democratic, and as you said, with good reason. Democracy is probably the most dangerous form of government the world has ever known because it is mob rule as you say.

What I find rather interesting is that most of the great philosophical and literary achievements occured during the post Pelo war period when everything was falling apart in Athens and not during the glory days between the Persian War and the Peloponnesian War. Maybe this confirms that adversity tends to make humans a bit more introspective and creative than during the good times.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Yes, America is a different kind of empire in a different kind of world. And I am confident that we still have a good, long future ahead of us. But things do change, and it is quite improbable that we will stay on top for all of remaining human history.

[ArneFufkin]

Maybe this confirms that adversity tends to make humans a bit more introspective and creative than during the good times.

It's called rent. Sometimes known as groceries.

[GaConfed]

Slavery played a large part in all civilizations until 1865 AD. Nothing unusual about any of this.

[GaConfed]

You have a point, but maybe developing the intellect might be escapism from reality also.

[ArneFufkin]

We survived our Civil War. We beat down the two most dangerous and brutal worldwide threats in human history in German/Japanese Fascism and Sino-Soviet Communism. We'll take Islamism down too. Then whatever ism springs up from the putrid septic tank of bad hearted man.

America will always be in a "Next?" mode. Brokaw is full of it, there is no ONE SINGLE greatest American generation. Our young soldiers stepped up and demonstrated their courage and skill last month. Every American generation is great when events warrant. We'll be around until the Big Star blows up good. We've got a winning human model.

[ArneFufkin]

I think its a lot of free time.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

What I find rather interesting is that most of the great philosophical and literary achievements occured during the post Pelo war period when everything was falling apart in Athens and not during the glory days between the Persian War and the Peloponnesian War. Maybe this confirms that adversity tends to make humans a bit more introspective and creative than during the good times.

Well, I'm not sure I would quite agree with your assessment. Yes, Plato and Aristotle were both late, but Homer, Herodotus, and the great playrights were all prior to the end of the Peloponnesian war. And there were many other good philosophers back then, too, but we have lost many of their works. Aristotle was in many ways not so much an original thinker but rather a summarizer of what had been done prior to himself -- particularly by those living during the golden age of Pericles. In today's terms, he would be writing textbooks rather than publishing groundbreaking new research papers. It is even very much debatable how much of Plato's material is original and how much is directly from his teacher Socrates.