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Return to Lepanto
October 24, 2011 | 241 comments
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The Lion as Catholic
February 8, 2010 | 27 comments
Buy the Book
Religion Is Not the Enemy
A remarkable agnostic, Maarcello Pera, explains why.
Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians: The Religious Roots of
Free Societies
By Marcello Pera
(Encounter Books, 224 pages, $23.95)
You were taught that pious platitude that you can’t judge a book by its cover. But the truth is that usually you can. This one, for instance, looked easy. You read the title: Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians. You saw that the preface is written by Pope Benedict XVI. You could already guess what you would find on the inside pages. And you would be wrong.
The author, Marcello Pera, is not an evangelist or theologian but a seasoned politician: the former president of the Italian Senate. He is not a devout Catholic but an agnostic, a secularist. A philosophy professor before and after his political career, he studied Karl Popper and defends the traditions of European liberalism, which have historically been at odds with the public stands of the Catholic Church.
Nevertheless Pera has made common cause with the Pope because he is convinced that Europe cannot survive as a free and democratic society without recognizing its cultural roots in Christianity. The history of Europe is inextricably entwined with the history of Catholicism, he argues, and to love Europe means to admire the Catholic faith. The Church is not without flaws, he concedes:
But in the end, how can we fail to see that without the Catholic Church, Europe would have disappeared not once but countless times, and the West would have lost its civilization.…How can we fail to realize that when other institutions, parties, movements, or systems—political, philosophical, juridical, economics—are in error, they simply cease to attract adherents or they disappear, but when the church errs, its very errors exalt the grandeur of its message, the noncontingent value of its words, and the spiritual reality to which it bears witness?
During the long debate over the framing of a constitution for the European Union, the Vatican—under first John Paul II, then Benedict XVI—implored the leaders of Europe to recognize the Christian heritage of the continent explicitly. This was necessary, the Pontiffs argued, not for the sake of the Church but for the sake of historical accuracy. When the foundational document finally appeared, with only a vague passing mention of religion, the Vatican protested that a fraud had been committed: Europe’s present leadership had renounced Europe’s past history.
Pope John Paul II, in particular, explained that the need to cite Europe’s Christian patrimony could be justified on purely secular terms. It was the Christian intellectual tradition that begot Europe’s respect for human rights and for the rule of law, he observed; it was the Christian tradition that gave rise to the universities and inspired the artists of Europe for centuries. The nations of Europe have very little in common, actually, apart from their shared experience of Christendom.
Because of their disparate interests and their well-established tendency to quarrel among themselves, Pope John Paul insisted, the nations of Europe could not form a stable union unless it was based on some fundamental principles. The Christian moral tradition furnishes such a stable foundation, he pointed out; economic interests do not. The late Pontiff warned that a European Union based on nothing more permanent than shifting economic interests would soon collapse. Less than a decade later, his prediction may already be coming true.
Marcello Pera makes a similar argument for appreciation of the Christian tradition. Anyone who values rational public discourse should notice how it progressed in Europe under the aegis of the Church, he says. Science blossomed in Christendom, and even the Enlightenment must be recognized as a reaction to Christian thought. Pera finds it indisputable that “the collision between Christianity and liberalism, between the Church and modernity produced a fertile outcome for both sides.”
From the time of St. Augustine, Christian Europe understood the separate roles of Church and state, the City of God and the City of Man. Although there were border violations aplenty over the centuries, when normal relations were restored, political and religious leaders agreed on certain fundamental points: that religious freedom should be upheld, that the church should not be a tool of the regime; that individuals should be treated with dignity whatever their beliefs. These three basic principles, Pera notes, are diametrically opposed to the instincts of both authoritarian government and religious fundamentalism. They are the guarantees of European democracy.
Unfortunately, Pera writes, the secularism of post-Enlightenment Europe—the secularism of Locke and Kant, which sought to preserve the instruments of government from usurpation by clerics—has been replaced in our time by a more militant form that sees religion itself as an enemy. European intellectuals have fled from the Christian tradition, claiming a fear of fundamentalism—when it is that very Christian tradition that provides their best defense against fundamentalism.
Moreover, while European leaders have been building up needless defenses against the nonexistent threat of Christian fundamentalism, they have exposed their societies to the very real threat of Islamic fundamentalism. Having decided that all religious faith is dangerous, Europe’s elites have no way to counteract the influence of a faith that is foreign to European traditions and hostile to European interests. Pera laments: “The bitter truth is that the West is afraid of Islam because it is afraid of religion, and of its own religion first of all.”
There is an old chestnut in politics: “You can’t beat somebody with nobody.” If you don’t have a candidate in the race you will lose, regardless of your opponent’s weakness. In Europe today, Islamic culture is making steady inroads because European culture is too weak or too complacent to offer any resistance. “If Europe is not a melting pot but only a container,” reasons Pera, “this is because it does not have enough energy to melt down and fuse its contents.” (Readers in the United States, the pre-eminent melting pot, should take note. When the siren calls of “diversity” render us deaf to any appeal to a common heritage, chaos is just around the corner.)
Anemic secularism cannot withstand the onslaught of militant Islam, Pera tells his readers. Unless Europe can draw some nourishment from its Christian roots, the civilization once known as Christendom is living through its twilight years.
An afterthought: Marcello Pera now teaches political philosophy at the Pontifical Lateran University: a proud son of the Enlightenment at the Vatican’s most prestigious academic institution. His presence there—and his loyalty to the European liberal tradition, which is so different from its impoverished American cousin—testify to the breadth and depth of Europe’s intellectual traditions, even as his book warns of their demise.
About the Author
Philip F. Lawler is the editor of Catholic World News (cwnews.com) and the author of The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture (Encounter).
c. j. acworth| 2.21.12 @ 6:29AM
This sounds like one to put on my reading list.
Alan Brooks| 2.21.12 @ 7:36AM
Bathazar,
these bozos probably think the ghost of Reagan will save them. The Holy Trinity for them:
Gipper
Dutch
and Holy Reagan.
Jim | 2.21.12 @ 12:55PM
Huh? Make some sense.
O.F. A.N. A.S.S.| 2.21.12 @ 5:17PM
Even sheep know Balthazar is Diogenes is Orr, Gasm and Associates is Purplegay is jharp is fckewe is MediaMutters.
What is your excuse?
Ovines For
A Nation
Absent Species Sodomization
Timothy L. Pennell| 2.21.12 @ 9:21AM
Whadda ya know.
John Adams was right.
Alan Brooks| 2.21.12 @ 7:39AM
Just you watch, Bathazar; they'll run yet another Bush this autumn-- hard to believe save for knowing that they are stuck in the mindset of Reagan's vice president
and cannot free themselves.
McCandles| 2.21.12 @ 3:19PM
Why the left does not speak ill of anything Islam related, I have no idea. The religion condones enslavement of women, beating women, killing enemies, homosexuals, and adulterers (if female). I would like to hear what your opinion of Sharia law is. Or have you no idea what I'm talking about?
Mac Jehoff| 2.21.12 @ 7:41AM
DA! We should dump that old rag of parchment known as the US Constitution in order to create the next Communist "Workers' Paradise".
W| 2.21.12 @ 8:39AM
Balt is copyng and pasting the drivel emails from Media Matters to divert attention from Obama's failure as a president.
Harry the Horrible| 2.21.12 @ 8:43AM
Umm, Balthazar, I can answer the first question.
UNEMPLOYMENT DURING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION RANGED BETWEEN 4 and 6.5%.
So the jobs WERE there.
Fiscal| 2.21.12 @ 8:03AM
All successful organizations act to preserve themselves. This is also true of Christianity. So yes, they certainly had an impact on the development of Europe in positive ways, but they were also showed fascist tendencies with campaigns like the Crusades. It is fairly obvious that preservation and growth was far more important to them than building a better society. With regard to promoting science, as long as it seemed consistent with their ideology, it was fine, but when it comes to true science, then just ask Galileo or Darwin. If you want further proof of self protection, just look at how the Church handled child molestation.
So the statement that "religion is not the enemy" is certainly not absolute. But there can be no doubt that they had a major impact on the development of western society in positive ways by forcing a workable structure on their populations. All organizations benefit from consistent leadership. They are less successful today because they can't force their views on the populace.
Religion is not the enemy, certainly, but organized religion is also not the savior -- especially in today's society where "enlightenment" comes primarily from non-religious sources.
The question remains about the future, but we continue to see this self-preservation in the number of groups supporting a more theocratic leadership like Iran or a bit less so like social conservatives.
Don| 2.21.12 @ 8:34PM
You are an idiot.
"It is fairly obvious that preservation and growth was far more important to them than building a better society"
Obvious to whom?
It is fairly obvious that you are an ill educated moron full of yourself.
Anthony| 2.21.12 @ 11:14AM
Amazing isn't it? Mr. Pera has come to realize, albeit, a few centuries late, that America's magnificent Founders, were correct; that a great society cannot sustain without moral and ethical roots.
Morality, as John Adams warned us, is the foundation of civilization; when a culture and society becomes too ashamed, and too impotent to defend its values and traditions, it will cease to exist.
Hence, I give you Obozo and the radical Left's nihilistic death wish for America.
Kingofthenet| 2.21.12 @ 12:14PM
Morals aren't Christian or Secular they are HUMAN. Name one good thing a Christian or Believer can do that a Atheist cannot? Now name Evil things that ONLY a 'believer' would do that an Atheist would NEVER do? Which is easier to come up with examples?
SeymourGlass| 2.21.12 @ 12:33PM
Now name Evil things that ONLY a 'believer' would do that an Atheist would NEVER do?
Let's have YOUR list, King.
Kingofthenet| 2.21.12 @ 1:03PM
Inquisition
Crusades
Salem Witch Trials
There also the 100 year war between England and Spain
The KKK
just for starters...
SeymourGlass| 2.21.12 @ 2:21PM
Your line of thought is simple minded, King.
You've made a nice list of times and places where evil minded people have used the guise of religion to subvert and harm others. But the religion itself was not the cause of these things, any more than "non belief" was the cause of the Killing Fields, Stalin's purges, Mao's exterminations, Castro's persecution of gays... and the list goes on.
The KKK? Seriously?
Michael P| 2.22.12 @ 10:43AM
TAKEN FROM A SCENE OF THE "WEST WING" During a "crash" ("means there has been some kind of security break: No one in or out of the White House"), Josh talks to some high school students who had won a trip to the White House through Presidential Classroom. Josh assures them that there is nothing to worry about. "We've been having these crashes once a week." Most of the security problems, it seems are due to Islamic extremists. But Josh emphasizes that the problems are not due to Muslims in general. Josh gives these high school students an SAT kind of question:
"Islamic extremist is to Islam as _______ is to Christianity."
After hearing from the students, Josh writes down his answer: "KKK. . . . It's the Klan gone medieval and global. It couldn't have less to do with Islamic men and women of faith of whom there are millions and millions.Muslims defend this country in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp, National Guard, Police and Fire Department."
Don| 2.21.12 @ 8:39PM
The mass murderers, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, were atheists. The atheists of the French enlightenment set the stage for Rousseau and led to fascism. Your defense of atheism is quaint.
james wilson| 2.21.12 @ 12:50PM
America is still the country in the world where the Christian religion has retained the greatest real power over the people’s souls and nothing shows better how useful and natural religion is to man, since the country where it exerts the greatest sway is also the most enlightened and free.
Most of English America has been peopled by men who, having shaken off the authority of the Pope, acknowledged no other religions supremacy; they brought, therefore, into the New World a form of Christianity which I can only describe as democratic and republican.
In America, religion is possibly less powerful than it has been at certain times and among certain nations, but its influence is more lasting.
Everyday some learned commentator proves to me that everything in America is fine except this religious spirit which I admire... The only reply I can give to that in truth is that those who talk like that have not been to America and have no more seen a religious nation than a free one. I shall await their return--
Alexander de Tocqueville
Dave Williams| 2.21.12 @ 2:57PM
Secularism is HARDLY anemic...in fact, it is a robust belief that science presents a far more true model of reality than ANY religion does, including islam. Science is not perfect, but unlike all religions, including islam, it is self-correcting. I personally will stack science's outlook and findings against a mile-high pile of bibles, korans, torahs, vedas, and the whole lot of religious scribblings, and I'm not alone.
Your move, fundies.
SeymourGlass| 2.21.12 @ 3:43PM
Duly noted. We'll both know in the end.
O.F. A.N. A.S.S.| 2.21.12 @ 7:54PM
Even sheep know the intelligence and honesty of an atheist who repeatedly opines diversively on the faith of others without ever offering credible arguments for his position is highly suspect.
Of course, even sheep know if he is proven wrong he will have a very long time to dwell on his unintelligence and dishonesty uncredibly come by.
Ovines For
A Nation
Absent Species Sodomization
Jeamar| 2.21.12 @ 6:26PM
Dave: Like so many secularists your use of the term "fundies" shows you equate Christianity in general to Christian fundamentalists specifically. There is plenty pf pseduo- science around so I personally would not base my whole life on a stack of scientific findings, but I certainly am thankful for scientific progress. I respect the Judeo-Christian foundations of our society for its moral guides. If nothing else, I respect Christianity (in its Catholic aspects) for keeping classical literature and the light of learning alive during the Dark Ages. I would think even the most committed secularist would appreciate that.
Don| 2.21.12 @ 8:50PM
Non-religious people do not have a clue as to the function and significance of religion in human history. For instance, if Jews and Christians had not embraced the concept of an immortal soul, there never would have arisen the concept of the inalienable rights of a citizen. If Jews and Christians had not embraced the notion that law is universal (the ten commandments and other God-given laws), scientific inquiry based on the idea that universal laws exist in nature would never have arisen.
Without the Judeo-Christian religions, neither democracy nor science would exist today. Proof: Neither democracy nor science arose in the advanced civilizations of China, India and the Arab world--despite the fact that technologies (gunpowder, sewage systems, agricultural implements) and advanced mathematics existed in all three civilizations. Those atheists who denigrate or mock religion are ignorant of what it is and the role it has played and will continue to play in human history.
POST American| 2.21.12 @ 10:50PM
---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------
AS we print out Albert Pike's famous letter
to Mazzini that laid out the plan for 3 world
wars --the first two in Europe --anf the last,
sort of the grand finale, calling for a showdown
between Christianity/ Islam and Judaism.
The purpose of teh first 2 world wars was
to obliterate the old cultures, bring in
standardization and TOTAL EUGENICS.
The last it to be about,once and for all,
discrediting the established monothesism
religions (all now heavily infiltrated anyway)
---in order to clear the war for a one world
stae religion centered on some BS form
of Luciferian earth worship.
Take note, the 3 monothesisms DO share
one feature ---they definitively and unequivocallty CONDEMN USURY.
---------Strange we NEVER ehar that talked about.
-------------------Very $$$$$trange.