| 摘要 | This meditation on Europe and America unfolds in twenty-eight brief sections, as follows:
Questions Atop the Cube …raising the question of which culture would better protect human rights and democracy – the culture that produced the starkly modernist, indeed rationalist, “cube” of the Great Arch of La Défense in Paris, or the culture that produced the “cathedral,” Notre-Dame? Proponents of the “cube” imagine that the “cathedral” has little or nothing to do with human rights and democracy; might they be mistaken?
More Questions …asking why “Europe,” and especially western Europe, is at such odds with the United States today on international affairs issues; why Europe is wrapping itself ever more tightly in the cords of bureaucracy; and why, above all, Europe is depopulating itself at a rate not seen since the Black Death.
Martians and Venusians? …reviewing Robert Kagan’s analysis of “Europe and America” in his recent bestseller, Of Paradise and Power, in which political differences are traced to different strategic ideas of how the 21st century world works.
True, but Insufficient …why Kagan’s political analysis, correct as far as it goes, doesn’t get us to the nub of “Europe’s Problem.”
Puzzles …raising even more questions about recent European political, social, and cultural circumstances, including the questions of Europe’s “depoliticization” (Pierre Manent) and its “Christophobia” (J.H.H. Weiler).
A Disclaimer …making clear that these are not the questions of a Europhobe or a jilted lover, but of someone who is very aware of America’s debt to Europe, and who believes that Europe’s crisis of civilizational morale could be replicated in the United States.
A Different View of History ….exploring why a Slavic view of the dynamics of history – i.e., that culture drives history over the long haul – sheds light on today’s European malaise.
The Trapgate of 1914 …explaining why Europe’s current crisis of civilizational morale had its immediate origins in the slaughters of World War I, which was itself the product of a breakdown of European culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Something New: The Drama of Atheistic Humanism …locating the sources of that cultural breakdown in the rise of “atheistic humanism,” which taught that liberation from the God of the Bible was the precondition to maturity, authenticity, and freedom.
Getting at the Roots of Things …why Henri de Lubac’s analysis of “atheistic humanism” helps explain the mid-20th century horrors – communism and Nazism – as well as what happened in Europe throughout the 20th century, i.e., the triumph of secularism, which turned out not to be politically “neutral,” after all.
A Hard Judgment …asking, with Christopher Dawson, whether a “secular society with no end beyond its own satisfaction” can long endure.
Geographical Expansion, Spiritual Contraction …exploring the expansion of the European Union to twenty-five member states, and reviewing the recent debate over a possible mention of the Christian sources of European civilization in the new European Constitution, a debate that sheds a bright line on Europe’s current crisis and its cultural roots.
What Constitutions Do …reviewing the critique of the new Euro-constitution by J.H.H. Weiler, an Orthodox Jew and distinguished international legal scholar, who believes that a “Christophobic” Europe is a Europe that has cut itself off from its deepest civilizational roots – and is thus in very bad trouble.
Historical Memory and Moral Community …more from Weiler, on why imposing secularism on an expanding European Union in the name of “toleration” is, in his term, “Orwellian.”
“Christophobia” …eight characteristics of today’s European secularist ideology, as outlined by Weiler.
Two Ideas of Freedom …being an explanation of why the Euro-constitution debate was actually a reprise of an argument over the nature of freedom – an argument that has been going on since the High Middle Ages, when the terms of debate were first defined by Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham.
By Name …being a bit of a relief from high-altitude philosophy: a list of some 100 prominent Europeans – poets, soldiers, kings and queens, painters, composers, theologians, scientists, politicians, spanning twenty centuries – absent whose lives, deeply influenced (for good or sometimes ill) by Christianity, it would be simply impossible to imagine “Europe” today.
Making Europe “Europe” …how Christianity gave Europe a common “story” in the first millennium a.d..
Those Not-So-Benighted “Middle Ages” …how “Christendom” – medieval Europe – set the cultural and social foundations on which representative democracy was eventually built.
Giving an Account …asking whether radical secularists can be good citizens, in the sense of being able to “give an account” of their commitments to pluralism, tolerance, human rights, etc., and suggesting that Christian conviction provides a thicker, more compelling “account” of these democratic commitments.
What False Stories Do …being a summary of Pope John Paul II’s recent argument that Europe is dying from a false story.
A Free and Virtuous Europe …how Catholic social doctrine can give a much thicker account of pluralism and tolerance, the usual stereotypes notwithstanding.
The Stakes for the States …explaining why all of this matters (and it does, considerably) for the U.S.: the European story is our story, too; there are grave security issues involved, especially in light of the Islamist threat; Europe’s continuing “depoliticization” will encourage similar trends in the U.S..
Futures …outlining four possible European 21st centuries: “Paradise Works” (very unlikely, given the demographics); “The Muddle” (in which some European countries maintain working democracies while others experience a racist backlash against immigrants and still others become slowly but steadily Islamicized); “Europe Reconverted” (in which the upcoming generation in Europe, rediscovering its Christian roots, also finds sources of new civilizational energy, and begins to reverse the European crisis of civilizational morale); “1683 Reversed” (in which Europe becomes increasingly dominated by radical Islam, rendering Notre-Dame the Haggia Sophia of the 22nd century).
Reversing the Question …why the issue is no longer whether Christianity can “accommodate” democracy, but whether a democracy bereft of the moral reference points that Christian conviction provides can explain itself to itself – or defend itself.
The Cost of Boredom …being a further reflection on why a culture is only as great as its spiritual aspirations – and why the “metaphysical boredom” evident in Europe today is, once again, the root of the “Europe Problem” and a possible future “American Problem.”
A Different Modernity …why and how it’s possible to tell the story of modernity in a different way, informed by biblical and theological wisdom.
The Cube and the Cathedral ……being why, at the end, we come back to the beginning, and the question, “Can there be ‘politics,’ in the deepest Western sense of the term, without God?” – and why this question is of urgent importance for Americans as well as Europeans. |
