Europe and the revival of civil religion
“Die Presse” in Vienna published my guest article on August 11, 2024 under the title “Zur Neubelebung der Zivilreligion”. As the article was shortened by the editors, it follows here in full:
On the revival of civil religion
By Michael Breisky
What Christian Ortner describes in the “Presse” of August 2, 2024 as atheistic cultural Christianity, can be read in a discourse that took place as early as 2004: namely between Marcello Pera, the Italian philosopher, avowed atheist and President of the Italian Senate, who belongs to the liberal wing of the Berlusconi party; and the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, long-time prefect of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – and elected Pope a year later as Benedict XVI.
Published in “Ohne Wurzeln – der Relativismus und die Krise der Europäischen Kultur” (“Without Roots – Relativism and the Crisis of European Culture”) by Sank Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg, the two reached astonishing consensus on the foundations of a humane society of the future: in two articles written independently of each other and the subsequent correspondence: they agreed on the need to revive Europe’s Christian roots. Pera describes the revelation of Christ as a “fact”: although one could dispute whether and how it took place as such, its statements are now there and unchangeable; as such, they are therefore “true”. This fact, which is aimed at the dignity of every human being, is also confirmed in a rational chain of argumentation based on nature, evolution and reason; in this way, it is possible to arrive at the political values of Europe and the summarizing concept of human dignity without religion – now “bottom-up” in contrast to the “top-down” argumentation of believing in God.
With Ratzinger’s explicit approval, Pera advocates a civil religion that revives Europe’s Christian roots in its political statements; “one must act as if God existed”. Such a civil religion promotes basic cultural values where this is necessary due to the separation of church and state. This civil religion is therefore (according to Wikipedia) “the religious part of a political culture that is necessary for a democratic community to function”. It is “civil” to the extent that non-religious elements of a culture can also create identity or lasting acceptance – things that today’s Europe urgently needs. The fact that the great German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, in his old age, concedes more success to religion in the care of its followers than to rational humanists is, of course, also part of the point!
Summarizing Pera and Ratzinger here with other words: what is said in the preamble to the EU Treaty about “the cultural, religious and humanist heritage of Europe” can be seen today as a driving force (note: heritage is used here in the singular, thus expressing its unity!), as It inspires “the inviolable and inalienable rights of man, as well as freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law as universal values”. However, the two authors also relativize the universality of the values where they violate important external framework conditions of other cultures; all these core values of a culture and their geographically and historically determined framework conditions are like content and container – not everything in them is interchangeable; after all, there are non-negotiable boundaries, as in physics and chemistry.
The inalienable dignity of the human being thus arises from Christian-humanist thought. To illustrate this contradictory togetherness, we can look at the shape of the great pyramids of antiquity: Some, as in Giza, have a masonry point-top; others, as in Mexico, end just before it in a small horizontal surface – in both, however, the entire construction process is oriented entirely in the same way on the perspective vanishing point.
Both authors saw already twenty years ago the decline of Europe as a consequence of the idea of tolerance being perverted. Tolerance is probably the most important consequence of human dignity and became the official doctrine of Europe, not least as a result of two world wars. But exaggerating the teaching of the Second Vatican Council that other religions also contain “individual elements of truth”, one now relativizes the value of one’s own religious convictions down to zero and falsely interprets the required respect for other confessions in such a “painless” way that all religions are also subjectively to be regarded as equally valuable, because no truly objective truth can be recognized.
In short, Europe’s own values are visibly withering away due to their relativization, and this spiritual vacuum is being filled by the external and internal enemies of a democratic and prosperous Europe, who don’t care about human dignity. Pera and Ratzinger already saw this twenty years ago, warning “the true no longer exists, the transmission of truth is seen as fundamentalism and the very insistence on the truth arouses fears and anxieties“. They called for the active defense of European values: again and again through patient and actively sought discourse – and where this is rejected, to react with passive resistance, where attempts are made to use force against these values.
And even more briefly: with a civil religion, we can succeed in making fearful Europeans proud again not only of having conceived the dignity of every human being, but also of continuing to live by it.
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Michael Breisky is a retired Austrian ambassador and author; his latest book “Europa verstehen und lieben lernen” (Understanding and Learning to Love Europe) was recently published in a small advance edition.
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The book in question was published in April of this year as a “trial balloon” on the subject of Europe, and this article is the abridged version of a new essay that is to be included in a revised edition of the book.
KEYWORDS: GIOVANNI PERA, JOSEPH RATZINGER, HUMAN DIGNITY, PREAMBLE TO THE EU TREATY, CIVIL RELIGION
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
