The Political Philosophy of the European City

I had to pick it up from the Post Office, but it was worth it: I received today the author's copies from Rowman and Littlefield of my book
"The Political Philosophy of the European City." https://t.co/7BDRQfNf4y
I am now assured it's a real object. Next Q: will it have readers? pic.twitter.com/XIJgUJ8DZz

— Ferenc Hörcher (@HorcherF) June 18, 2021

Was This Recorded?

Stimulating Constantinople Lecture by Fr @DragosHerescu of @IOCS_Cambridge about the impact of secularism on #Orthodoxy in western and eastern Europe, with a focus on “relevance”, diaspora religious life, incl. the impact of Covid-19, and ecumenical prayer. pic.twitter.com/Vq2VJHvLfs

— John Kittmer (@JohnKittmer) November 26, 2020

Mapping Eastern Europe

It's here! 🥳It's been a privilege to be part of the process. An incredible new resource from @NorthofByzance - visit Mapping Eastern Europe today! #MappingEE #medievaltwitter #arthistory https://t.co/Wpdeh1xFyr

— Sarah Mathiesen (@MathiesenSarah8) November 18, 2020

"Christ, Culture & New Europe" by Remi Brague

Christ, Culture & New Europe by Remi Brague https://t.co/atFaBel5St

— Levan Ramishvili (@levanrami) September 5, 2020

I myself was privileged to witness some of all this at first hand in late October of 1991, when I was invited by the Pontifical Council for Culture to take part in a symposium of European intellectuals that was meant to offer the bishops of the Synod food for thought. Among the forty people present—almost all of them lay men and women—fewer than ten came from the countries of Western Europe. Most of those present were from the former Soviet Union or from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. It is interesting for Western Europeans to note that the term “Eastern Europe” was deeply frowned upon by the participants from these latter countries, who insisted instead on “Central Europe.” The very idea of an Eastern Europe, they said, was one more lie of Soviet propaganda, used to justify the Red Army’s artificial division of Europe into East and West. The “Church of silence” could be heard again, and the first thing it had to tell us was that it had never been completely gagged and that we. Western Christians, had too often and for too long been a Church of deafness. And the Pope was clearly eager to see the reintegration of Europe’s Eastern and Central parts.

In addition, we Westerners were reminded of a few basic historic facts. We were reminded, for instance, that Prague is almost as “western” as Berlin, and more so than Vienna or Stockholm. We had to learn once again that it had been the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and that it harbored Europe’s first university. We were invited to bear in mind that our intellectuals frequently helped to throw people living under Communist rule into despair by playing footsie with Marxist ideology while they one after another hallowed each new earthly paradise it was giving birth to. As a Frenchman, I experienced a vicarious embarrassment about my country’s role in the post-World War I creation of Czechoslovakia and, even worse, Yugoslavia. These completely artificial states, welding together peoples who had either never lived together or had not done so for centuries—people whose religions, languages, histories, and levels of economic and social development were widely disparate—are the result of the shortsightedness of politicians who were by and large my fellow countrymen.

I am reminded of Taft when he writes: "What makes this task difficult is that memories of European peoples are poisoned with the recollections of wrongs done to and suffered by one another. If some way is not found to heal these wounds, everywhere in Europe and in the former USSR, they will fester and keep alive the longing for vengeance." We need Christ for the healing of memories, and traditionalists of every jurisdiction who cannot reach out to those in other jurisdictions in charity are poor represesntatives of Christ. Are there differences in preferred dogma? Yes, and Rome will need to lead the way in reconsidering what they have advanced as dogma of the "Church." The healing of memories will not be accomplished by a secularist movement or the strengthening of the EU. The churches must be strengthened in Christ, and this will require ecclesial reform, not the same old but more from Rome.

More from Milbank on Empire

Thanks very much for this. Responses: I think no easy line between supposed organicism of states and artificiality of empire. China is historically an empire and organic. Roman Empire had a shared ‘organic’ culture. In some ways empires more than states put culture first. https://t.co/2iH95pguL0

— john milbank (@johnmilbank3) July 1, 2020

Western Culture

CWR Dispatch: Ratzinger’s Western Culture delves deeply into the foundations of European life
This collection offers reflections on many of the fundamental underpinnings of the life of society, applicable to both European and non-European countries.

Ignatius Press

Edit. 5/12
A review: What Will Become of Europe? by Carson Halloway

Jerry Salyer on Jacques Maritain

1P5: Jacques Maritain: Visionary or Leftist Ideologue? by Jerry Salyer

Related:
Saul Alinsky and Jacques Maritain by Christopher Blosser
Saul Alinsky and "Saint" Pope Paul VI: Genesis of the Conciliar Surrender to the World by Christopher A. Ferrara

The Philosopher and the Provocateur. The Correspondence of Jacques Maritain and Saul Alinsky. Edited by Bernard Doering. University of Notre Dame Press. 118 pages. $25.95.

Did it go out of print? Not seeing it at the UND website.

Now Available

Metropolitan Hilarion on the Future of Christianity in Europe

Pravmir: Address by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk on the Future of Christianity in Europe

On 18 September 2018, in Lisbon, A Junção do Bem Foundation organized a reception in honour of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, who is currently on a visit to Portugal. After the reception Metropolitan Hilarion delivered an address on the Future of Christianity in Europe.

original: MosPat

CWR Dispatch: Edith Stein’s wisdom for a new century by William Doino, Jr.
A new anthology offers many insights into Stein’s thinking on faith and mysticism, Church-state controversies, the role of women, relations between the sexes, racism, suffering, and other topics.

Meeting of Eastern Catholic Bishops of Europe

Macedonia

Crisis: What the Macedonian Church’s Fight for Autonomy Signifies by Ines A. Murzaku

Pope Francis at the (Re)Thinking Europe Conference

Sandro Magister: Eastern Churches, a Thorn in the Pope's Side

The Story of Pierre Haab

Pravoslavie: “Every Human Life is a Gift From God”. The Long Journey of a Swiss Catholic To Orthodoxy

The Present Crisis in the Patriarchate of Rome

It is probably not correct to trace it as a consequence of ecclesial trends prior to and culminating in the Council of Trent, much less to intellectual trends alone, but one must also take into consideration the development of the modern nation-state (with its roots in the centralization of power by nationalist kings) and how the Church responded accordingly.

It's not just neo-scholasticism or Tridentine Roman Catholicism that is the problem, though they do have a major effect on the Church's ability to evangelize.

Message of the Fifth European Catholic-Orthodox Forum (via Byz, TX)

RT Interview with Patriarch Kirill

‘Western laws now clash with moral nature of man’ – Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill

On the Charlemagne Prize Speech

Christian Order: Francis Accepts His Prize by HUGH FITZGERALD

For Documentation