A note toward the definition of Europe

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2016/06/30/a-note-toward-the-definition-of-europe/

The separation of a long-married couple, who never belonged together in the first place, is probably the most appropriate metaphor to describe Britain’s decision to split from the European Union. The separation is sad, but not at all shocking or inappropriate given the United Kingdom’s touchy relationship with the continent over the past six decades. In one election Britain gained a new identity, or so it appears on the surface.

In the immediate aftermath of the “Brexit” vote, internet search engines reported a substantial spike in queries containing phrases such as “what is Europe” and “what does it mean to be European.” Britons began to ponder their future and their past. This was suddenly all-too-real. Is Britain still part of Europe?

If we accept the most widely-used definition circulated by the international media, Europe is a political entity whose existence is premised on individual countries participating in a large, supra-national union. Of course, these individual states are subject to the rules and regulations of the overarching European “nation.”

Can a people be European one day and not the next?

Europe, in that sense, is a mere political enterprise designed around strict geographic boundaries and economic relationships. But does being European mean something more fundamental than maintaining membership in a multi-national trading club? Can the withdrawal of a nation from a political union that is little more than a half-century old mean that it is no longer European? Can a people be European one day and not the next?

To discern the meaning of Europe, most experts initially turn to Herodotus, the “father of history,” who was the first to understand Europe as a geographic idea: “The Persians consider something of their property to be Asia and the barbarian peoples who live there, while they maintain that Europe and the Greek world are a separate country.” And while the lands known to ancient historians did not encompass most of modern Europe, those observers still understood it as continent distinct and separate from the lands and peoples of the east.

As classical civilization waned, and the barbarian tribes of the west adopted many of the intellectual traditions of the Mediterranean world, along with the Christianity that re-defined classical civilization following conversion of the Emperor Constantine in 312, Europe became a distinct cultural entity. It was a marriage of the classical heritage and eastern spirituality.

With this synthesis, a European self-consciousness emerged and Europe became more than a term of geography: it was now the name for a people with distinct beliefs and a unified spiritual order. Cultivated in the nurseries of incense filled abbeys and prayerful monasteries on the outer edges of the known-world, Europe emerged in the Dark Ages as a unique cultural organism with the Christian faith at its core.

Thanks to the evangelizing spirit of early-missionaries such as St. Boniface and St. Anselm, and the rapid growth of universities from the tenth century onward, Europe developed into a culturally vibrant society complete with thriving commercial centers, systems of justice, and stable political institutions. Although daily life was undeniably tough in the Middle Ages, European society nonetheless had structure and order in a time when most of the world remained mired in chaos.

But the unity of European civilization was ephemeral. In the early sixteenth century, Europe once again splintered into different factions and Christendom’s cohesive nature dissolved under the pressure of religious conflict and national tensions. The culture of Europe changed dramatically as Catholic and Protestant sects fought over doctrine and power. Moreover, nationalism steadily gained ascendency, and individuals, rather than the family or community, became the focus of political rights. The nation replaced the Church as the institution of first allegiance, and a new Europe emerged from the embers of torched churches and stripped altars.

The unity of European civilization was ephemeral.  Today, Europe is more secular than ever, more fractured than at any point since its founding.

By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Europe remained steadfastly Christian, but the traditional faith remained under siege. The intellectual leaders of the Enlightenment sought to cast off the “barbarism” and “superstition” (Edward Gibbon’s words) of Europe’s Christian past and replace it with a faith in ideas and scientific progress. Once again, the substance of Europe changed, but at its core, the European people remained cognizant and respectful of their historical antecedents, even when their intellectual leaders did not.

But today, Europe is more secular than ever, more fractured than at any point since its founding. It appears that its spiritual bonds are all but broken, leaving European culture an empty shell of its former self and susceptible to a wide-range of external influences. It is for this reason that observers can only conceive of Europe as a political enterprise rather than as a living community with a deep sense of history, tradition, and vibrant spiritual underpinnings. If Europe is little more than a loose political union, it is easy to see its probable disintegration following Britain’s vote.

However, Britain’s decision to leave the European Union was not a decision to leave Europe itself. It was not a rejection of Britain’s European heritage, but rather, a rebuke of an artificial political union that has endured, in various forms, for less than six decades.

And although the legal unity of Europe remains in doubt, its cultural foundations stretch back almost two millennia and cannot be abandoned in a single vote. Given the current climate of European politics, with its crushing taxation, loose immigration policy, and socialist economy, a break with Brussels was likely an appropriate, albeit risky, decision for the British people. This is particularly true in light of Scotland’s renewed call for an independence vote and simmering troubles in Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, Britain remains an integral part of Europe no matter how eagerly angry Europhiles would cast it away.




Glen Sproviero

Glen Sproviero

Glen A. Sproviero is a commercial litigator in New York. Read his previous columns here.