I’ve been reading an extremely stimulating book in the last days, “L”Europe chrétienne?” (“A Christian Europe?”) by Joseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler. I have to admit that I still have a few pages to go but I couldn’t wait to share my first impressions with you… In fact, sharing is a truly Christian virtue, isn’t it?

To make the long story short: Weiler is against the viewpoint according to which the European Constitution should not include any reference to Christianity. And by refusing to talk about its Christian heritage, Europe would deny a central point of its identity. This is why Weiler talks in his book of a European self-denial.

(NB: Yes, the Constitutional Treaty is dead but this discussion is still relevant… and always fascinating. It is, in fact, (once again!) a discussion about the European identity.)

Why should the Constitutional Treaty have contained a reference to Christianity?

I’ll invoke here only one argument put forward by Weiler.

The author notes that more than 50% of the European population lives in countries having a constitution containing an explicit reference to God (ex: Ireland, Germany) or Christianity (ex: Greece, Malta, Denmark or the UK). At the other side, there are constitutions where there is no mention of religion or God. They stress the secular character of the state (ex: France).

What’s the conclusion?

Europe should accept its constitutional diversity and the Constitutional Treaty should reflect this diversity. This is why – Weiler says – including “religious” references is as legitimate as underlying the secular nature of the state… But the authors of the Constitution refused to talk about the Christian heritage.

Their choice – Weiler asserts – was dictated by the assumption that the Constitution should be “secular”, thus “neutral”. However, this choice has nothing to do with neutrality because it’s just about privileging one option over another, both of them being equally legitimate…

Weiler’s reasoning is far from being exhausted. I will continue to develop his point later on.
I hope that, by sharing with you these observations, I already provided you with some food for thought for Christmas time.

TBC…

(Post picture: Mosaic detail from Hagia Sophia. From: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net)

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