READING #1

This is where we shall begin. I’d ask that you procure a moleskin type of notebook for your reading notes. I prefer LUECHTTURM1917, but you may find others that work equally well. Week of 15-21 Jan

• read the INTRODUCTION to Gay&Webb’s ‘Modern Europe’
• in your journal: 1) try to articulate the central arguments (only a handful) and 2) jot down some of the supporting facts, or subarguments, for those arguments.
• NOTE: no need to hurry through the chapter. Go at a pace that works for you. Once you commplete the chapter, we can find a time to meet for discussion.
• BELOW: ’What is Europe?‘ consider the quotations that follow.

The dominant feature in creating a common culture between peoples, each of which has its own distinct culture, is religion….I am talking about the common tradition of Christianity which has made Europe what it is, and about the common cultural elements which this common Christianity has brought with it….It is in Christianity that our arts have developed; it is in Christianity the laws of Europe have been rooted. It is against a background of Christianity that all our thought has significance. An individual European may not believe that t Christian Faith is true; and yet what he says, ad makes, and does, will all depend on the Christian heritage for its meaning. Only a Christian culture could have produced a Voltaire or Nietzsche. I do not believe that the culture of Europe could survive the complete disappearance of the Christian Faith.

T.S. Eliot

The core of Europe has been above all molded by spiritual and cultural processes that for nearly two millennia have been centered on religion. Only in the 18th century did secularization gain the upper hand, and even this was largely a rebellious child of religion…. Until modern times it had always been Christianity that had set the tone, and any history of Europe must accordingly pay due attention to the Christian churches and denominations.

Heinz Schelling, 2006

The idea of culture, of intelligence, of great works, has for us a very ancient connection with the idea of Europe.

Paul Valéry, 1919

Europe is “a kind of great republic divided into several states, some monarchical, the others mixed, but all corresponding with one another. They all have the same religious foundation, even if divided into several confessions. They all have the same principle of public law and politics, unknown in other parts of the world.

Voltaire, c.1750