Europe: Civilizations Clashing: From Athens to the European Union by Piotr Jaroszynski and Lindael Rolstone

Abstract

Reviewed by: Europe: Civilizations Clashing: From Athens to the European Union by Piotr Jaroszynski and Lindael Rolstone Thomas Michaud JAROSZYNSKI, Piotr and Lindael Rolstone. Europe: Civilizations Clashing: From Athens to the European Union. Berlin: Peter Lang GmbH, 2019. 194 pp. $23.17 As the authors clearly remind the reader, this is an academic work of the philosophy of culture and not a work of Christian apologetics. [End Page 842] It is not premised on advancing a religious truth, nor is it intended to induce conversions to Christian faith. It offers well-argued and wellresearched philosophical critiques of the past, present, and possible future of European civilization. The critiques establish the viability of its proffered prescription that Europe can be saved from its degeneration into moral relativism and progressive ideology by a revival of the universal meaning of Christianity. That meaning is the true value of Christian personalism, the dignity and autonomy of the human person as the authentic foundation of human rights. European culture is assessed as a battlefield of value clashes historically yielding three concepts of European identity: Greek/Hellenic Europe clashing with Persia, Christian Europe clashing with Islam and with itself (Protestant versus Catholic), and Enlightenment Europe clashing with its own Christian heritage. The latest emerging identity concept is being engendered by the European Union (EU), through which, the authors warn, Europe is ceasing to be Europe. The authors contend that the EU's vision of the new Europe is moving toward a fully secular ideology of socialism that denies Europe's Greco-Roman heritage and its Christian foundation. With the EU's socialist trajectory, ideas of the dignity and autonomy of the human person, the profound importance of the family, and the rich diversity of European countries' cultures are being gradually subverted in favor of an atheistic, homogeneous utopia that, in the name of a so-called tolerance, which is an end in itself, is playing a confused game with Islam. In other words, unless the fundamental value of the human person is respected, regardless of whether one is Christian, Jewish, or Moslem, the EU's socialist unity will be the demise of Europe. This work is certainly controversial. Nevertheless, its incisive philosophical critiques demand serious, open-minded attention. There is too much at stake for its message to be summarily dismissed as the extremist laments of disaffected Christians. The authors, moreover, invite readers to engage their thesis to promote the assessment of Europe's condition. One area where the authors' critiques could be augmented is with further analysis of the history of European economic thought and practice. The ideal of a socialist utopian unification has been historically integral to economic collectivism in which statist dirigisme is elevated above and beyond culture, religion, and, indeed, the human person him-or herself. Various Enlightenment philosophies vigorously promoted notions of a collective "soul" or "mind" that evolved into modern versions of a universal transcendental ego, a common "species being," and a collective consciousness and will. These ideas offered historically the metaphysical and anthropological carriage for the development of economic socialism and communism. Additionally, of course, the value of the concrete, individual human person with dignity and autonomy was lost, even erased, within an abstract, unreal collective human identity. Concrete, individual [End Page 843] persons become objects of manipulation and abuse in economic collectivisms that deny their fundamental dignity and autonomy. It is the case, as this work maintains, that the tradition of Christian personalism is the most profound and solid bulwark against the depersonalizing effects of metaphysical, anthropological, and economic collectivism. Without the human person, a de-Christianized new Europe will be the source of its own collapse. Thomas Michaud West Liberty University Copyright © 2020 The Review of Metaphysics