The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without GodWhy do Europeans and Americans see the world so differently? Why do Europeans and Americans have such different understandings of democracy and its discontents in the twenty-first century? Why is Europe dying, demographically? George Weigel offers a penetrating critique of 'Europe's problem' and draws out its lessons for the rest of the democratic world. Contrasting the civilization that produced the starkly modernist 'cube' of the Great Arch of La Defense in Paris with the civilization that produced the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Weigel argues that Europe's embrace of a narrow and cramped secularism has led to a crisis of civilizational morale that is eroding Europe's soul and failing to create the European future. Reminding us that history is read most acutely through cultural, rather than political or economic, lenses, Weigel traces the origins of 'Europe's problem' - which first became lethally evident in World War I - to the atheistic humanism of nineteenth-century European intellectual life: setting in motion an historical process that eventually produced two world wars, three totalitarian systems, the Gulag, Auschwitz, the Cold War - and, most ominously, the Continent's depopulation, which is worse today than during the Black Death. Yet many European leaders continue to insist - most recently, during the debate over a new European consititution - that only a public square shorn of religiously informed moral argument is safe for human rights and democracy. Precisely the opposite is true, Weigel suggests: the people of the 'cathedral' can give a compelling account of their commitment to everyone's freedom; the people of the 'cube' cannot. Can there be any true 'politics' - any true deliberation about the common good, and any robust defence of freedom - without God? Geeorge Weigel makes a powerful case that the answer is 'No' - because, in the final analysis, societies and cultures are only as great as their spiritual aspirations. George Weigel offers Europeans a profound analysis of the moral and cultural decline of their culture and their society. Europe's collapse of morale, its power-deficit, and its depopulation have profound implications for the future of Western Civilization, not only in Europe, but also in America, Australia and throughout the world. Geroge Weigel, a Roman Catholic theologian and one of America's most distinguished public intellectuals, is the author of the acclaimed international bestseller, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. Three of his other books - Soul of the World, The Truth of Catholicism, and Letters to a Young Catholic - are also published by Gracewing. |
Avis des internautes - Rédiger un commentaire
LibraryThing Review
Avis d'utilisateur - bgknighton - LibraryThingI would have rated it higher, but he doesn't understand the economical use of words. Good and well thought out reasoning on the future of Europe and a warning to the US. There is a place for Christian ... Consulter l'avis complet
THE CUBE AND THE CATHEDRAL: Europe, America, and Politics Without God
Avis d'utilisateur - Jane Doe - KirkusCan the EU make the world safe for democracy? Not if it continues to deny its Christian roots, says Weigel (The Truth of Catholicism, 2001, etc.).Weigel's pithy polemic boldly assesses contemporary ... Consulter l'avis complet
Table des matières
| 87 | |
| 93 | |
Those NotSoBenighted Middle Ages | 99 |
Giving an Account | 108 |
What False Stories Do | 115 |
A Free and Virtuous Europe | 122 |
The Stakes for the States | 127 |
Futures | 138 |
Reversing the Question | 157 |
The Cost of Boredom | 163 |
A Different Modernity | 168 |
The Cube and the Cathedral | 175 |
Acknowledgments | 179 |
Notes | 183 |
Index | 196 |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God George Weigel Aucun aperçu disponible - 2005 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
argued atheistic humanism Cardinal cathedral Catholic Church Chris Christopher Dawson Christophobia Cited civilizational morale commitment constitution-making contemporary European conviction crisis of civilizational cube debate defender democracy democratic project demographic doctrine drama of atheistic east central Europe Ecclesia in Europa Eurabia Euro Europe problem European civilization European constitution European culture European history European Union faith France French future George Weigel German Grande Arche Henri de Lubac high culture human person human rights imagine intellectual Iraq Islamic John Paul II Joseph Weiler Kagan laicite living Lubac Mark Steyn ment modern Mohammed Bouyeri Muslims Niall Ferguson Norman Davies Paradise and Power pean Union philosophy Pierre Manent Pinckaers pluralism Poland Polish Pope John Paul population possible preamble question radical religious Richard John Neuhaus Roman Rome ropean secular secularists seems society Solidarity Solzhenitsyn's spiritual story theologian things tian tion tional tolerance truth twentieth century twenty-first century understanding United Western Christendom western Europe
Fréquemment cités
Page 33 - Men have forgotten God.' The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century.
Page 109 - DRAWING INSPIRATION from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law...
Page 56 - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
Page 189 - The third shaft was aimed at those who harbour a simplistic or monolithic view of European culture: The interweaving of the notions of Europe and of Christendom is a fact of History which even the most brilliant sophistry cannot undo . . . But it is no less true that there are strands in European culture that are not Christian: the Roman, the Hellenic, arguably the Persian, and (in modern centuries) the Jewish. Whether there is also a Muslim strand is more difficult to...
