Orthodoxy and Europe's future

Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, a Russian Orthodox believer says that Orthodoxy has a lot to offer Europe. Excerpt:

In the current expansion eastward, however, it is inevitable that the values and mores of European institutions and alliances will be shaped more and more by the traditionalist views of Orthodox Christian believers and less and less by the modern, secularized Protestant assumptions of Western European democracies. Orthodox believers already far outnumber Protestants across Europe, and by some estimates they may eventually even surpass Roman Catholics. If 21st-century Europe ever develops a religious complexion, it will be predominantly Eastern Orthodox.

In the long run, therefore, while the greatest challenge to Europe's cultural and political identity may come from the growth of Islam, its more immediate challenge is how to deal with some 40 million to 140 million Orthodox Christians who, when given a voice in European policymaking, will argue that churches should have a more prominent voice than heretofore in the shaping of social policy.

There are two ways of dealing with this challenge. One way is to stick to a narrow definition of "the West." Make modern-day secularism the gold standard of democracy and decry all challenges to secularism as examples of a "values gap" between East and West. This tried and true formula has the advantage of already being familiar, thanks to the cold war. Unfortunately, it is also a recipe for a conflict within European institutions. And, given the rapidly growing numbers, influence, and wealth of the Orthodox Churches of Eastern Europe, it is a conflict Western Europeans are likely to lose.

Another way is to expand the definition of what is "Western" through dialogue with Orthodox Christians. The goal of such a dialogue would be to stress the common roots that bind various religious traditions, to encourage models of tolerance that do not presume secularism, and the different ways to balance the disparate roles of church and state, while avoiding total estrangement of one from the other.

Such a dialogue would allow Europe to build a new foundation for East-West relations that is based on the common Greco-Roman and Christian heritages.

Maybe so. Hope so. There's a much greater openness from the Russian Orthodox to Pope Benedict than to fellow Slav John Paul. Still, I'm skeptical, because there's a lot to overcome. For one thing, Europe's secular elites are so allergic to Christianity that they can barely bring themselves to acknowledge its existence -- Catholic and Protestant -- in their own heritage. Secondly, in parts of Europe, criticizing homosexuality from a traditional Christian perspective is tantamount to a hate crime; I can't believe they'll be all that open to Orthodoxy, given that the Russian patriarch just caught hell for speaking out against homosexuality in a European governmental meeting earlier this month. I read something the other day -- but can't find it on the Internet for some reason -- quoting the Russian patriarch rejecting Western ideas about the separation of church and state. Besides which, the Orthodox have their own serious internal problems to deal with.