«Quale Europa cristiana e quale Lutero?» A proposito di un recente volume di F. Buzzi

The following text conducts a conceptual analysis of new misuses of religion for political purposes within Western Christianity in Central Europe. The primary objective is to present a conceptual understanding and analysis of this phenomenon, considering both quantitative and qualitative research already conducted. The analysis reveals a paradox wherein the misuse is deemed both unsuccessful and successful. The paradox unfolds as unsuccessful predominantly among the majority of Christians in Europe, especially when compared to its successful counterparts in Orthodox Christianity (e.g., in Russia) and Islam (in Europe). Notably, the success of misuse is more pronounced among Central and Eastern European Christians than among Western European Christians. Numerous exceptions contribute to this paradox, including a positive correlation between Christians and far–right parties, and instances of public prayer at state borders, town squares, and near abortion clinics. This pattern is particularly pronounced in regions with a higher prevalence of Roman Catholics than Protestants. The author presents a basic explication of why these misuses appear or are attempted, and are only minimally or mildly successful, namely, because of the strong posed by democracy, free market, and rule of law.

Nationalism and globalization are often considered processes leading to opposite poles in cultural, economic, and political history, but in fact the relationship between them has been far more complex, and in the past century and a half they may be said to have worked in tandem. Nationalism emerged in a sixteenth‐century country in Western Europe – England – its emergence coinciding with the dawning of “the European Age in History”: the rise of Western Europe, in particular, and societies of Western European descent, to the position of economic, political, and to a certain extent cultural leadership of the entire world. It emerged in a region, culturally unified by Western Christianity, which, independently of nationalism, and for the first time on such a broad scale in history, already began to bring other continents under its sway, thereby initiating the process of cultural, economic, and political globalization. At the center of this globalizing world was Spain, which subordinated the European “Holy Roman” Empire and vast areas in South and Central America under the political authority of the Habsburg Crown, united Europe, Africa, and the Americas economically in the “triangular trade,” and dedicated itself to the mission of spreading Roman Catholicism. The world would never again be integrated into one system on so many levels, that is, so meaningfully, but, however profound, the success of this first attempt at globalization was short lived. The emergence of nationalism, reinforced by and reinforcing the disintegration of the Western European Church order which produced the Protestant Reformation, put an end to it: res publica christiana split into warring camps, religious differences adding on to and often masking secular political conflicts, and by the eighteenth century the competitive spirit which pitted nation against nation in every sphere of human endeavor replaced the universalistic, catholic indeed, religious consciousness which for so long united Western Christians.

REVIEWS 757 known about such attemptswhich were, in any case, renderedperipheralby the Pilsudski-ite'Doctrine of the Two Enemies' and other exigencies of that period. Bokajlo'sequally ill-focused and overlong paper also adds very little that is intrinsicallynew, in this case about the federalismassociated with the old Polish-LithuanianCommonwealth, J6zef Pilsudski'sideas, and with the weakly-definednotions of a Mitteleuropa entertained for a time by sections of the Polish socialistand nationalistmovements. The volume is rounded off by Jurgen Elverts'sratherflat account, based directlyon his earlierpublications, of how the original nineteenth-century concept of a German-led Central EuropeanFederationwas subsequentlycommandeeredby right-wingintellectualsand eventuallyincorporatedby the Third Reich into itsracist-imperialist foreignpolicy. However interesting and significantideas of European unity and the like are, it must be remembered that until 1945 they were marginalized intellectually and politically by the steamroller of an increasingly militant, intolerant nationalism, especially from about i890 onwards, and by its corollary, the emergence of the self-conscious nation-state, which was exemplified during the interwaryears by, among others, Weimar Germany and the Second Polish Republic. It is that proper, wider perspectivewhich is lacking in most of this volume, whose limited scope, moreover, cannot reasonably be expected to address wholly satisfactorilya topic -'United Europe' of such complexity and magnitude. TheCentrefor Research inPolishHistory PETER D. STACHURA University ofStirling Berend, Ivan T. Histogy Derailed.Central andEastern Europe in theLong Nineteenth Century. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, and London, 2003. xx + 330 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. $39.95: /27.95. MORE than two decades ago, two Hungarian scholars,the late Gyorgi Ranki and Ivan Berendpublishedtwo studies,in English,on economic development and backwardness in Central and Eastern Europe (Underdevelopment and Economic Growth, Budapest, I979 and TheEuropean Periphegy andIndustrialization, Cambridge, I982). They were among the few booksfrom Communist Europe which merged easilyinto the mainstreamof Westernhistoriography. The study under review was written by Professor Berend alone: after a distinguishedcareer in Budapest (he was Rector of the Karl Marx University and then President of the Academy of Sciences), he now works at the Universityof California.The book dealswith the long nineteenth centuryand the short Eastern Europe. Russia makes brief appearances:the lands under Habsburgruleas well as the Balkansstandat the book'scentre. ProfessorBerend argues that the main goal of the Eastern nations was to join the 'civilized', that is, Western Europe. The economic, cultural and political life of the region was dominated by that objective and 'fundamental nationalism' (p. 235) was the preferred instrumentfor its achievement. The process often involved aggression abroad or police terror at home, and the 758 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 development of extreme right- and left-wing populism pointed to the revolutionsto come. The complexjigsaw puzzle assembledbyBerendcontains some dazzlingpieces depicting,for example, the historyof music harnessedto the national cause, or the story of the delayed revolution in agriculture.The argument concerning the 'core' and the 'peripheral' regions in Europe (Berend's Eastern Europe contains a similar core region, the AustrianBohemian territory) is carefully developed and skilfully deployed. It is a perspectivewhich is shaped by the development theories of the I96os, and it isbroughtinto a somewhat sharperfocusby the fallof Communismin Eastern Europe. The strengthof theWesternmagnet, however, deniesanykindof autonomy in the historicaldevelopment of the region. Its German description,Zwischeneuropa , helps to change the perspective. Froma periphery,the region emerges as the object of long-term and fierce contests, and not between Germany and Russia alone. It is a borderland,with militaryfrontiers,fortresses,privileged standing armies. The Habsburg military frontiers were turned against the Balkans and were still in place in the nineteenth century; as late as the eighteenth century, new militaryfortresstowns were establisheddeep in the hinterland of the Habsburg state. The consequences of such a strenuous military past were by no means negligible: it may be that some of Berend's 'parasitic landlords' had a distinguished military ancestry or, that later, 'barrackssocialism'derivedfrom the common usagesof the contested region. In the West, Berend points out, the state helped to create the nation, whereas in the East -including Germany and Italy the nation was expected to form the state.In the multi-nationalempiresof the East,however, the state also had the capacity profoundly to affect the future of nations. In Austria...

New BlackfriarsVolume 44, Issue 515 p. 196-204 Ecumenical Studies HENRY ST JOHN O.P., HENRY ST JOHN O.P.Search for more papers by this author HENRY ST JOHN O.P., HENRY ST JOHN O.P.Search for more papers by this author First published: May 1963 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-2005.1963.tb00907.x Star Books on Reunion, General Editor The Bishop of Bristol. Mowbray. 1962. 5s. 6d. each. Roman Catholics and Unity, Enda McDonagh; Anglicans and Unity, David M. Paton; Presbyterians and Unity, J. K. S. Reid, D.D.; Congregationalists and Unity, Erik Routley, D. phil.; Baptists and Unity, L. G. Champion, D. Th.; Methodists and Unity, Rupert E. Davis. The Hard Facts of Unit, John Lawrence; S.C.M., 1961. John Lawrence is an Anglican and Editor of Frontier. A Catholic ecumenist beginning his studies would do well to read this perceptive little book too. op. cit. p. 118. For a measured and dispassionate assessment of the place and vocation of the C.S.I. in the movement towards reunion, by a Catholic theologian, see the article by Pére Louis Bouyer in Istina, 1955, 2, p. 215. Statistics will be found in A History of the Ecumenical Movement, Rouse and Neill, S.P.C.K., 1954, Appendix to chapter 10, p. 496. For differing Anglican views on this question see The Apostolic Ministry. ed. K. E. Kirk, Hodder and Stoughton. The Recovery of Unity, E. L. Mascall, Longmans, 1958 (Anglo-Catholic), Old Priest and New Presbyter, Norman Sykes, C.U.P., 1956. Christian Unity - The Anglican Position, G. K. A. Bell, Hodder and Stoughton, 1948 (Central Anglican). See The Church of South India and the Church, by Donald Rea, Baxters Press, Oxford, 1956. A justification by an Anglican Papalist of acceptance of the measures taken in setting up the C.S.I. in view of the urgency of the need for unity. He pleads the necessity of economy and tolerance, and the Catholicizing tendency of the C.S.I. The Household of God, by Dr Leslie Newbigin, once a Presbyterian minister and subsequently one of the bishops of C.S.I. throws much light on this tendency. ‘Only in the Church, with its living experience of the Holy Spirit, can the Bible be understood in its wholeness. In this sense the Church Knows more than the bare written text of scripture’. Dr George Florovsky, the Orthodox theologian, quoted in The Old and New in the Church, S.C.M., 1961, p. 21. op. cit., p. 55. He goes on to plead that it should not be wrenched from its context, but should be examined in the context of the whole doctrine of the Church. Quoted in Chrysostom, Quarterly Bulletin of the Society of St John Chrysostom, Winter 1962–63, p. 2. See The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism, by Louis Bouyer, Harvill Press, 1956, Ch. VI, The Sovereign Authority of Scripture. See The Study of Theology, by Charles Davis, Sheed and Ward, 1962. ch. IX, The Christian Mystery and the Trinity. For an excellent and comprehensive survey of this problem see Christian Unity, Lectures of the Maynooth Summer School 1961, ed. McNamara. Furrow Trust, 1962; Religious Freedom and the State, by Dr Enda McDonagh. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume44, Issue515May 1963Pages 196-204 RelatedInformation

The Commission on Faith and Order and the Second Vatican Council

The article deals with the thought and work of the German theologian and priest Max J. Metzger, in particular his idea of an interrelation between the unity of Europe and the unity of European Christianity. By analysing Metzger’s courage to write a manifesto for European unity in which he admitted Hitler’s defeat on the battlefields of World War II and the integration of Germany among the European states, the article highlights his profound reflections on the contribution that Christians and churches should have offered for the reconciliation and unification of the European continent, namely, their conversion as a return to their roots, in order to witness together the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: God’s universal love for all humanity and the peoples of the Earth.

This article explores how early modern English travellers viewed themselves in an ‘Ottoman mirror’ as both ‘Franks’ and Englishmen by tracing English responses to being identified by Muslims as European Christians and associated with Catholics. First, I will pay attention to contemporary definitions for Franks, second to how travellers reported being identified and treated by the Turks, and in addition, and through these depictions, to how they reacted to being associated with other Western Christians in the Levant. Travellers did not all agree on who or what was a Frank and showed signs of anxieties and insecurities about being associated with Catholics. As most of these traveller's texts were intentional public attempts at self-fashioning, they provide an excellent viewpoint from which to investigate how Englishmen both rejected and accepted a Western European Christian identity at a time when more and more Englishmen ventured outside Europe in their search for economic success.

Theology in Greece today is the outcome of a long and complex historical process in which many different, and even contradictory, trends and theological proclivities have converged and continue to converge, thereby defining its shape and agenda. The present article tries to provide, in four sections, both a descriptive and critical account of this complex and fascinating history.Among these trends, a decisive role is attributed in the first section of the paper to the so-called ‘generation of the 1960s’ (including among others pre-eminent Greek theologians such as Metropolitan of Pergamon John D. Zizioulas, Christos Yannaras, Nikos Nissiotis, Fr John Romanides, Panagiotis Nellas), a Greek theological movement for renewal inspired mainly by the theology of the Russian diaspora and the call to ‘return to the Fathers’, which was instrumental in shaping contemporary Orthodox theology both in Greece and outside the Greek-speaking world.In the second section are given the reactions to and criticism of the ‘theology of 1960s’. There were strong disputes and rejection on the one hand by conservative Greek academic and ecclesiastical circles, and on the other hand from the opposite progressive side (mainly the professors of the Theology School of Thessaloniki University during the 1990s), which accused this theological movement of conservatism and anti-Westernism.The emergence of the agenda initiated by the new theological generation (of 2000) is discussed in the main and longer (third) section. This new theological agenda and its principal characteristics come from points of disagreement with the theologians of the generation of the 1960s, and from a renewed and more inclusive understanding of Orthodox theology which goes beyond the problématique, the language and the agenda of the 1960s. Among the topics raised and discussed by the new trends of Greek theology are: the rediscovery of eschatology and its dynamic interpretation, ecclesiological issues, such as the centrality of the episcopal office, and the critique of the dominant place of monasticism in the life of the church, the movement of liturgical renewal, the revalorisation of mission, the rediscovery of ethics and the dilemma of ethics versus ontology, the renewed interest in political theology, the overcoming of anti-Westernism and of the West–East divide as a central interpretative key, a more constructive relationship between Orthodoxy and modernity, the critical approach of the ‘return to the Fathers’ movement, the reconsideration of the devaluation of biblical studies, the emergence of an Orthodox feminist theology and the debate on women's ordination, the radical critique of religious nationalism, and the devolution into Byzantinism and ecclesiastical culturalism.In the fourth section the article names the settings and institutions that are hosting the new theological trends in Greek Orthodoxy, mainly mentioning the leading Greek Orthodox theological quarterly Synaxi, the official scholarly journal of the Church of Greece, Theologia, the Biblical Foundation of Artos Zoes and its Bulletin of Biblical Studies and, finally, the Volos Academy for Theological Studies. An overall group vision and esprit de corps which could integrate the individual efforts and provide an identity, clearly missing from the above-mentioned picture, are demanded from the two theological schools of Athens and Thessaloniki.The article concludes by briefly reviewing the conservative and fundamentalist reactions towards this new theological agenda, and by highlighting the urgent need for contemporary Greek theology to face the new, dynamic and particularly challenging global context, and to continue to reflect and to act towards Christian unity, as well as move to reconciliation between Christian East and West, Eastern and Western Europe.

The John F. Kennedy administration's pursuit of new frontiers in the emerging nations made its relations with Western Europe all the more important.1 Accordingly, Kennedy and his advisers crafted an elaborate policy, labeled the Grand Design, to shape European development while redressing America's relative decline in power.2 The Kennedy team perceived weakness in the nation's international position. The administration fretted over the persistent balance of payments deficit, the sluggish growth rate, and nuclear strategy.3 Western Europe, with its payments surplus, skyrocketing growth, and nascent nuclear weapons systems, appeared to be the key to resolving these problems. To turn that key, Kennedy officials wielded the Grand Design, an integration of economic, political, and military policies toward Western Europe. The scheme included the Trade Expansion Act (TEA) to reduce tariffs and create an Atlantic-wide free trade area. Its promoters believed that expanded exports were essential to America's global strength. The New Frontiersmen determined to tap Europe's, particularly West Germany's, financial surplus for aid to underdeveloped nations and assistance in maintaining U.S. troops. They wanted to stabilize the Cold War in Europe so they could concentrate on the battle with communism in the Third World. This conflicted with German and French aspirations. Americans tried to blunt those ambitions through British admission to the Common Market. The Kennedy administration also valued European unification as the way to contain West Germany and build a broader market for American products. Consequently, it talked about equal partnership with a united Europe. Yet like its predecessors, this administration had difficulty practicing partnership on other than American terms. In strategic military matters, the Kennedy team was particularly reluctant to share control. Proud of its managerial expertise, the administration wanted to keep Western nuclear forces centralized and in its own hands. This meant blocking independent German nuclear ambitions while trying to stifle those of France and extinguish those of Britain. By January 1963, the Kennedy administration's energetic pursuit of these policies had embittered French President Charles de Gaulle, estranged German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and undercut British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. The French veto of Britain's admission to the Common Market signaled the Grand Design's defeat and the end of America's easy predominance in Western Europe.

This chapter is divided into eight parts: (1) the present context: ecumenical and Catholic; (2) general eucharistic theology before Trent; (3) Catholic eucharistic theology the eve of Trent; (4) the Eucharist at Trent; (5) post-Tridentine Catholic theology of the Eucharist as sacrifice; (6) the Tridentine legacy in modern Catholic eucharistic theology; (7) transcending Trent; and (8) coda. The author discusses eucharistic theology that originally took its academic shape within the typical pre-Vatican II atmosphere of the traditional Roman Catholic seminary system of the 1950s and early 1960s. It is important to keep in mind the thoroughly medieval nature of the Eucharistic theology that European Christians shared with each other the eve of the Council of Trent. At this time theologians focused above all on the mystery of the sacraments of the body and blood and the efficacy of the eucharistic sacrifice for the living and the dead. Keywords: Catholic eucharistic theology; Eucharist; European Christians

In this essay the author aims to analyse the political project proposed by Ernesto Buonaiuti after the Second World War. The Democratic Alliance for the Italian Risorgimento, founded in 1945, tried to retrieve Mazzini’s political program and aimed at the birth of a republican Italy, which should have had a central role in building a united and Christian Europe. The project of Democratic Alliance for the Italian Risorgimento foresaw also the overcoming of the Cold War’s bipolar confrontation and an utopian cooperation between Western and Eastern countries: the Soviet Union itself had to be part, with full rights, in the process of European political integration. Through the periodicals Il Risveglio and, later on, 1945, Buonaiuti sought collaborations with all of the parties willing to share the main points of his plan, from the Christian Democracy to the Italian Communist Party. However, the dialogue with De Gasperi and Togliatti appeared unable to offer concrete results. The only political force which established a constructive relationship with Democratic Alliance was the Italian Republican Party, which shared Mazzini’s message, the constant references to the completion of Italian Risorgimento and the yearning for a united Europe.

The figures discussed in this chapter were forward-looking thinkers who were able to adapt to the needs of their times. All of them in one way or another were steeped in the Christian tradition and can be characterised as the forefathers of a United Europe. They were able to set aside their own preferences when a broader ideal required it. Ignaz Seipel was able to negotiate with representatives of the socialist party; although he personally preferred the state form of Monarchy, he played a decisive role in the enactment of the constitution of the Republic of Austria. In the context of his time, he can be considered extraordinarily open minded, not only concerning his political agreements but also, for instance, his friendship with Hildegard Burjan. Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi was an early visionary of European unification in the face of non-European world powers. He saw Pan-America, East Asia, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, and Europe as the five planetary force fields that made up the world. The pathway to strike a balance in this system would have been the founding of the United States of Europe. In 1925, he founded the ‘Paneuropa Union’ with its headquarters in the Vienna Hofburg and with the support of the Ignaz Seipel. The situation in Europe changed significantly after World War II, and Coudenhove-Kalergi adapted his programme to the new geopolitical situation. Until the end of his life, he struggled for the unification of Europe as a guarantee for peace. Otto von Habsburg, son of the last emperor of the Monarchy, can be considered one of the most outstanding supporters of a United Europe. He realised his political activity as successor of Coudenhove-Kalergi as President of the Paneuropen movement and from 1979 as a deputy to the European Parliament. He based his idea of European unification on the principles of democracy, federalism, subsidiarity, and solidarity. Cardinal Franz König advocated for the development of understanding between diverse people and religions. He believed that a United Europe must include both the Eastern and western halves of the continent and should be implemented to uphold peace. He was convinced that promoting Christian unity played a significant role in the progress of this unification and played a significant role in bridging the gap between Eastern and Western Europeans during the Iron Curtain era. Erhard Busek commendably combined his engagement as a local and federal politician with his commitment to the countries of Eastern Europe. In Busek’s view, the Danube should serve as a second river of unification after the Rhine. He further believed that economic cooperation, education, and intensive collaboration should play a preeminent role in the unification process. Busek served as a representative of Austria in the process of the enlargement of the European Union. He also held the position of chairman of the Institute for the ‘Danube Region and Central Europe’.

The relationship between culture and religion in Western Europe is marked by opposite, if not contradictory trends. One is the rise of ‘pure’ religion, abstracted from ethnicity and culture, which is registered particularly among immigrant minorities. This article focuses on an opposite trend of ‘culturalizing’ religion, which has occurred on the part of majority society. A prominent actor driving this trend is the high courts, which try to square the circle of living up to liberal state neutrality and acknowledging a privileged position for majority religion in society. However, the privileging of Christianity in Europe is light and largely symbolic, as I show in a contrast with the substantive privileging of Islam in Muslim-majority societies. If applied to immigrant Islam, culturalization still has exclusive implications, as it removes the respective practices from the ambit of religious liberty protections.

Fifty Years after the Second Vatican Council

The thesis is that the current renewal of trinitarian theology is a crucial resource for stimulating the quest for Christian unity and the mission of the church. The roots of the new trinitarianism lie in the thought of Karl Barth, a Protestant, and Karl Rahner, a Roman Catholic. This approach stands in diametrical opposition to the pluralistic theology of religions advocated by some Protestant and Catholic theologians. Sometimes called a “Copernican revolution,” the pluralistic model cuts the nerve of the church's mission by relativizing the uniqueness of Christ and the gospel.