Without Christian Roots: A Critique of the Roots Analogy in Relation to European Culture

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2015-45.pdf (192.29 KB)

Authors

Grech, Michael

Issue Date

2015

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17

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Journal Article

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Abstract

A major debate in the early years of the twenty-first century concerned whether the proposed European Union (EU) constitution should contain references to the supposed Christian roots of the continent. This paper considers a consistent use of the roots analogy, focusing on a published work by two important participants to this debate, Marcello Pera, President of the Italian Senate from 2001-2006, and Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI of the Roman Catholic Church from 2003-2013. It considers both the possibilities and limits of the roots analogy, and proposes a better analogy drawn from the work of Wittgenstein to understand the foundations of phenomena we group under umbrella terms like “European culture.”

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Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University

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CC-BY 4.0

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http://hdl.handle.net/10504/72548

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https://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/toc/2015.html

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1522-5658

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Journal of Religion and Society