Italian atheist philosopher Marcello Pera says Europe must call itself Christian, if it has any hope for unity:
Pera, an Italian senator, presented his latest book, "Perché Dobbiamo Dirci Cristiani" (Why We Must Call Ourselves Christians), in Rome on Thursday. More than 300 people were present at the event.
In the book's introduction Pera writes: "My position is that of an atheist and a liberal who asks Christianity about the reason for hope." Benedict XVI, in a letter to Pera, said that the book is "of fundamental importance at this hour in Europe and the world."Pera was president of the senate from 2001 to 2006. He has written various books, among which is an interpretation of the philosopher of science Karl Popper and an essay on the inductive method of Kant and Hume. In 2004 he published "Senza Radici" (Without Roots) together with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in which the problems afflicting Europe are analyzed.
Pera emphasized at the book launch that his new publication "is not polemics but critique," and he claimed that "European identity does not have a precise connotation, it is a summation that is both multicultural and distinct."
"It is the Christian root that can bring all of this together," he added. [...]
Pera spoke of a recent meeting with Benedict XVI. He said that the Pope did not ask him if he believed in God but: "How do you, an atheist, a liberal, a western European, justify the principles and values that you consider basic to the point of being proud to write your charters? How are you prepared to justify and compare yourself with others?"
The Pontiff continued, according to Pera's account, asking: "What is the terrain upon which I, a believer, and you, an atheist, can meet to safeguard these principles and these values without which you and I know our civilization would not exist?"
Pera noted that Christianity's concept of the human person as created in the image of God is not something found in other cultures, and said that this exists "prior to the state's intervention."
Meanwhile, in Britain, a company that produces a popular children's dictionary has been slowly removing words associated with Christianity and the history of Britain from its product:
Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.
But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain's heritage.
"We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable," said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University. "The word selections are a very interesting reflection of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual background and the natural world and towards the world that information technology creates for us." [...]
Vineeta Gupta, the head of children's dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said: "We are limited by how big the dictionary can be - little hands must be able to handle it - but we produce 17 children's dictionaries with different selections and numbers of words.
"When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers for instance. That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons. Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also much more multicultural. People don't go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words such as "Pentecost" or "Whitsun" would have been in 20 years ago but not now."
What does all of this mean?
Years ago I heard the principle attributed to Catholic moral theologian William Smith: All social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering. Deciding to drop a word that has already fallen out of use, become obsolete, from a dictionary is not a political act, but removing words still in everyday use just because you've decided they ought not be important in the vocabulary of a modern child most decidedly is.
The more we alter language to suit our present-day notions of what is worth communicating, the more we end up severing ourselves from the language and ideas expressed by our ancestors. Our sense of history, our connection to place, and (perhaps to a believer like me, most important of all) our ancient religious traditions become foreign to us, no easier to read about or understand than a tale written in Middle English.
If you are convinced, as some secularists are, that both religion and history are endless sources of violence, bigotry, and wrong-thinking ideas that really ought to be eradicated, you will have no problem with the idea that words associated with religion and a particular region's history are less important for children to learn than words like "tolerant, negotiate, interdependent, citizenship, conflict, common sense, debate, cautionary tale, bilingual, committee, compulsory, democratic, biodegradable, endangered..." all of which have replaced words like "aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch..." in the Oxford University Press dictionary. After all, you can't re-shape society if you still allow people to use the linguistic tools with which they may express old, hidebound ideas, or cling bitterly to the bigotry of religion.
But there's a downside, as Marcello Pera points out: when you remove Christianity from Europe, you remove a great deal of what unites the various countries that make up the European Union. And you remove the ability to explain coherently both to your own citizens and to those outside just who you are, what you stand for, and what you believe in. Europe didn't spring into being as a post-modern secularist entity in the late twentieth century, after all; without understanding the rich and storied past, we have no context in which to place the present, or to envision a hopeful future.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Jon: I hadn't thought about that. "Aisle" is used for supermarkets in England, but I'm not sure about theatres. I think "gangway" would be more usual in schools and general use. The word, on its own, certainly has a religious, and specifically Anglican or Catholic, feel - "walk down the aisle", etc.
Scott, are you implying that I live in a boneless city, have pointed ears, or both? Pshaw, sir, and again I say, pshaw.
How about battling cliches? "The winners are the ones who write the histroy." Pre-Christian linguistic roots abound in our languages, and that they were also pagans is, well, just too bad. We often cite the Latin (Roman) and Greek roots of words and ideas, and just as often ignore or gloss over that both were pagan.
Philology is a fascinating topic, though also a Brobdignagian undertaking for its breadth and complexity. I admired Tolkien for his fiction, and sat in awe of him when I learned of his academic creds.
Anywho, my best thoughts and wishes to all this season and your personal method of marking it, be it observing the winter solstice, sun return, or botanical and electrical entertainment for your pets, children and neighbors. Sol Invictus.
Atavistically yours,
Mad Fedor, High Clown of Momus
Franklin,
I greet you cordially with the joy of the Natal Day of the Unconquered Son. Err.. oops ... Sun. ;-)
One of the nice things about being Catholic is that you don't have to give up Paganism. It's sort of like getting married but you get to keep your mistress. To be a Catholic is to be but a lapsed Pagan. Just ask the Reformers. We keep our Horace, our Vergil. Our Catullus too.
On the various festal days of the Church, I, being unable to find a decent Mass celebrated in the Renaissance rite and in the old pagan language of Constantine and Aurelian, resort to cloistered spiritual readings, often from the old Missale Romanum, but frequently including the heartfelt outpourings of the devout poets and philosophers of antiquity. There is no sublimer orison of praise and supplication than Cleanthes' hymn to Zeus. It can be very effectively chanted and sounds positively Delphic when wearing a tunic and capuche. I read as well on occasion Sappho's hymn to Aphrodite, but my wife says we are getting too old for the rite it inevitably arouses. I thank the Immortals for small mercies.
Anyway, from a lapsed Pagan to a practicing one, Good Yule and may your Noel Log stay warm through the wintry nights!
Roland, your post inspires me to riff on menage a trois, but I'll spare all of us the imp[li/re]cations thereof, to, for and with. I was hoping to fit the phrase "the strangely fed, bellows" in there. It seemed rite. ;-D
My lyrical praise of the season comes from A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual (http://www.emeraldearth.net/winter__solstice.htm). We have two performances this year. All are always welcome: http://pai.dvpn.org/
It seems to me that a dictionary is exactly the place to INLCUDE words that are not frequently used and that kids need to know the meaning of. Isn't that generally why one looks up a word anyway? Assuming that kids will already know what a BLOG is, why would they look it up? To check the spelling? (Hopefully not.)
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.