The Roman Empire had for centuries united the ancient world with everything that made her great: the cult of the gods, common monetary units and a unified economy, free trade and travel, well-engineered roads and public buildings, clean water, military protection for its citizens and peasantry alike (after taxes, of course), stunning architecture and artistic production, Roman law and justice, an imperial system that sometimes ruled justly and often kept the peace, and thousands and thousands of common men and women who, to borrow Chesterton's phrase, made Rome great by loving her. And yet, peasantry and nobles alike began to see the Roman Empire lose her brilliance and begin to fade away. Our Roman mother was dying. But in her womb her progeny was being formed. Yet it was not inevitable that she would be born. Would the Empire have an heir, or would the child die with antiquity?
When the Romans had put an end to the remains of Alexander's dominion, they did not abolish Greek culture. The influence of the Hellenes and all of their cultural richness could not be abolished. We still are affected by Greek culture today. And whatever those heady philosophers had been discussing during the Athenian twilight, it seemed worth discussing again. And interestingly enough, in the great capital named for its founder, Alexandria, there were already sects of the Hebrew nation speaking Greek and reading Aristotle - all while continuing to worship Yahweh. These Hebrews probably would have seen a connection between the Philosophers' God, whom the thinkers described as "being itself," and their own Biblical God, who called himself "I AM" - the only human words that aptly designate pure being.
And across the sea, along the banks of the Jordan River, a man in the Biblical tradition was also calling himself I AM. But his message was not left merely for those who knew Yahweh. His message was also for those who knew Zeus. And even those skeptical philosophers who realized that the old gods were of late failing to show up at prayer time were able to recognize something greater than a man in the Galilean. That Galilean may have impregnated the Hellenized Roman Empire with the idea that the Greek world, in its search for beauty, truth, goodness, and divinity, could be understood within the Biblical tradition. There could be a fusion of Greek culture and Biblical faith. This is the progeny that was stirring in the womb of the dying Empire. This was the heiress of that great heritage of antiquity. When she was born, the child's mother, the dying Roman Empire, may have spoken her last words as her daughter was placed upon her bosom. She gave her a name: "Europe."
This idea, that Europe is not just a name but something more like an heiress, is part of what Pope Benedict was trying to get across in a lecture he gave at Regensburg in September of 2006. The Pope boldly states in his lecture that the harmonious convergence of Greek philosophy and Biblical faith was not merely the circumstance that Europe was founded upon, but rather that this convergence of faith and philosophy, faith and reason, is literally what created Europe. The Pope even says that this amalgamation of Hebraic faith and Hellenistic reason, along with the adoption of the Roman heritage, is and "remains the foundation of what can rightly be called Europe."
Modern Europeans are on a desperate search for something that can unify the continent once again. They are searching for an identity. After the bloodiest of centuries in which war and communist atheism had sundered Europe's religious identity by targeting the Judeo-Christian heritage, it was exactly that heritage that was wounded. The European Union, in attempting to live up to its name, is trying to unify itself with a constitution that can re-found Europe. And yet, in a strange denial of the history I have expounded here, the drafters of that constitution refused to make any mention of Europe's Christian heritage. The very thing that gave rise to Europe, according to Benedict, was being ignored. How can Europe live, if she denies that she was ever alive?
The constitution, as first drafted, did not pass. Perhaps the writers may some day come up with a draft that gets the go-ahead vote. But if that document does not make mention of the Christianity which at the close of antiquity was one in the same with what we call Europe, then what will emerge upon that continent will need another name. It will not be Europe, for Europe will have followed her Roman mother to the grave - her headstone ironically marked with a granite cross.
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