Meditation does not fit easily into the high-speed life of the 21st
century. And yet, those who pick up this slender volume of political
and religious contemplation will be richly rewarded. Weigel, former
director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington and author
of best-selling books on Pope John Paul II, provides the kind of
perspective on the contemporary politics of Europe that only a background
in philosophy and theology can produce.
The Cube and the Cathedral, which should be required reading for students
of the European Union, has something to offer both Europeans and Americans.
It challenges Europeans to dwell on the Christian foundations of their
continent’s political culture, a subject deeply uncomfortable
to many in Europe. Americans, whose opinions of the present are often
marred by ignorance of the past, will find themselves exposed to centuries
of European history and ideas, to which they are themselves heirs.
The title of the book derives from a visit paid by the author to the
Grande Arche in Paris, which represents the Cube, in the summer of
1997. This vast open square, faced with glass and marble and almost
40 stories tall, is a grandiose edifice erected by President François
Mitterrand on the axis that also includes the Arc de Triomphe and the
Louvre. It is a monument to functionalism and modernity. Weigel’s
counterpoint to the Cube is an even more famous Parisian landmark,
the Cathedral of Notre Dame, a grand Gothic monument to the yearning
of human beings for God.
“
Which culture,” Weigel finds himself wondering, “would
better protect human rights? Which culture would more firmly secure
the moral foundations of democracy? The culture that built this stunning,
rational, angular, geometrically precise but essentially
featureless cube? Or the culture that
produced the vaulting and bosses, the gargoyles and flying buttresses,
the nooks and crannies, the asymmetries and holy ‘unsameness’ of
Notre Dame and the other great Gothic cathedrals of Europe?”
It is a debate that has been with us as far back as the ancient Greeks.
Is man the measure of all things? Or is there
a higher authority to which we are
answerable for how we treat others? In some ways, this question is
at the heart of the divide that today separates Europe from the United
States.
In Europe, the clash over the role of Christianity in European history
erupted into full view during the negotiating phase of the preamble
to the proposed EU Constitution in 2003. Some countries, including
Poland and Italy, wanted a reference to God in the document, as
well as recognition of Europe’s Christian heritage. Many others,
led by the secularist French, were opposed. In the end, the secularists
carried the day.
The agreed preamble to the constitution includes what Weigel calls
a grudging reference to “the cultural, religious and humanist
inheritance of
Europe” a formulation described by a British Foreign
Office official as “so bland as to be meaningless.” Although
the document affirms “the universal
values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person,
democracy, equality, freedom and the rule of law,” it makes no
reference to the Creator as the origin of these rights, as does the
U.S. Declaration of Independence.
The failure to acknowledge the
essential role played by Christianity over more than 1,500 years in
forming the West’s moral, political and democratic values is
emblematic of the increasing secularization of European society in
the 21st century. Nowadays, only an average three percent of Europeans
attend church on Sundays, in contrast to 40 percent of Americans. In
many ways,
Europe has become a post-Christian
society, and the discourse of religion has been banned from public
life.
It is to this development that Weigel traces many of the horrors of
the 20th century in Europe, the godless evils of communism and Nazism,
the dehumanization of victims that made the
Holocaust possible. Without religious underpinnings and restraints,
the
Enlightenment belief in the power of reason can take devastating turns.
To his credit, Weigel acknowledges that the Catholic Church in Europe
has its own dark chapters to answer for, among them the Spanish Inquisition
and the persecution of Europe’s Jews, for which Pope John Paul
II led a Day of Pardon on the First Sunday of Lent in 2000.
Yet, Weigel argues, those who believe in a secular European project
of integration have failed to perform any similar act of examination
of the past and contrition. “Can those who are a-theos (godless)can
the people of the cube grapple with the dark passages in European
history caused by radically secularist understandings of the human
person, human community and human destiny. . .?” In his view,
they have so far failed.
Now, the European Union, of course, was conceived as an antidote to
war and to the above-mentioned evils. By tying the economies of France
and Germany together, so its founders
believed, war on the European continent would become impossible. For
50 years, this has proven true, though the contribution of NATO and
the U.S. nuclear
deterrent to keeping the peace is often ignored by the proponents of
a united Europe.
Today, however, the possibility of war seems too remote to be a real
reason for European integration, and the heartland of Europe is languishing.
The
Cube and the Cathedral was published before the French and Dutch
rejections of the EU Constitution, but it points to the lack of vitality
evident in today’s Europe of declining birthrates, empty churches
and political indifference a Europe beset by a “metaphysical
boredom” in a phrase borrowed from philosopher David Hart. Add
to these problems the very real
potential for a rise in xenophobia as
a consequence of Europe’s growing
Muslim population, which will be needed to swell the workforce so as
to maintain the standard of living. We are looking at a pretty bleak
future here.
Another aspect of European secularism, astutely perceived by Weigel,
is
acceptance of a Hegelian view of history. The “ever closer union” of
the Treaty
of Rome, is considered by supporters
as inevitable, the ultimate historical
synthesis.
Today, therefore, even as the constitution has been defeated in the
polls by voters of two founding EU countries, legislation before the
European Parliament continues to be considered on the basis of this
now defunct document. Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker
even stated after the vote that he did not actually believe that the
Dutch voters had really said “No” to the constitution,
but had been motivated by other reasons. Some countries have pledged
to keep the ratification process going, as if nothing has happened.
This is precisely what EU skeptics mean when they talk about Europe’s
democratic deficit.
But the future is not written in stone, and one of the refreshing aspects
of
The Cube and the Cathedral is that Weigel conjures up a number of
possible scenarios for Europe’s future. One is that the European
project will triumph in the end; another that Europe will degenerate
into a half-baked mess of growing
Islamization and differing speeds of
integration. Alternatively, the continent could experience a reawakening
of Christianity and find a new sense of purpose. This last possibility
was certainly suggested by the huge outpouring of emotion that followed
the death of Pope John Paul II, and the success of the Catholic Church
in stiffening the fight against Communism in Central and Eastern Europe.
Needless to say, the
author finds reason for hope in these facts.
Weigel does not write from the
perspective of someone who wishes to see Europe’s decline hastened,
as do some American critics of European politics. Indeed, he says,
if you are to understand the political culture and history of the United
States, you must understand the developments in Europe from which it
grew. Having spent a great deal of time in Europe over the past decade,
Weigel knows that Europe presents a mixed
picture and he sees the potential
suggested by its nuances. One of his
important achievements is to show that it is possible to engage deeply
in debate about the future of Europe with civility and affection.
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