Europe in Eclipse?

Apr 22, 2017 by

by Glen A. Sproviero, The Imaginative Conservative:

Having cast off Christianity, Europe now lacks a spiritual identity and united purpose. Absent these essential characteristics, a culture becomes stale and decadent, and turns to political institutions as the sole guarantor of peace, welfare, and security…

european unionThe British government’s invocation of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on March 29, formally began the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from a politically unified Europe. While the dissolution of rigid political bonds will forever change the United Kingdom’s relationship with the continent, it is increasingly imperative to ask whether its withdrawal from the European Union is representative of a larger cultural shift? Are Europe’s political troubles deeper than they appear on the surface? Is a united Europe possible, or even desirable, today?

I am far from the first person to ask this question, and I certainly hold no delusions that I can settle the issue once and for all. However, that Europe is undergoing substantial cultural change is an observation that becomes clearer each day. The face of Europe is changing in a multitude of ways: (i) its population is becoming more ethnically and religiously diverse; (ii) its churches are emptier than ever; (iii) its political institutions are increasingly centralized and uniform; (iv) its economy is subject to crushing taxation and protectionist policies; and (v) its consciousness of its historical greatness is succumbing to the relativism that every culture is entitled to equal esteem. A once vibrant cultural unity is now defenseless against the demands of extreme multiculturalism, relativism, and bureaucratic centralization. To wit, Europe has become the paradigm of post-modern cultural subjectivism.

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