Western Union, “Spiritual Union,” and European Integration, 1948–1951

Praying on Brexit? Unpicking the Effect of Religion on Support for European Union Integration and Membership

“…Empirically, there is very little clarity in the literature regarding the explanations as to why affiliation with a certain religious denomination influences political attitudes and behaviours. Most of the explanations for these effects – in this and previous research (see Clements, ; Nelsen and Guth, ; Tilley, ) – draw on the analysis of the historical backgrounds, organizational structures, social and moral values of religious groups (see Coupland, ; Madeley, ; McLeod, ;). However, there is a lot more data on major Protestant groups and Catholics rather than minor groups such as Methodists and Baptists, even though they might be dominant in specific localities and capable of swinging a result of an electoral poll in some constituencies.…”

“…Many of the ideals promoted by supporters of EU integration have clear overlaps with the values that lay at the heart of Catholic beliefs and ideal lifestyle, such as charity, peace and social justice (Madeley, ; Nelsen and Guth, ). Indeed, the original objectives of the European Coal and Steel Community included securing peace in Europe, and subsequent EU treaties and policies have emphasized its commitment to charity and social democratic visions of social justice (Coupland, ; Madeley, ). This overlap is also reflected in the fact that the European project has traditionally been led and strongly supported by political parties with strong links to Catholic values, such as Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) (Madeley, ; Nelsen and Guth, ).…”

“…They have a historic interest in protecting the sovereignty and independence of the nation state, and suspicion of a supra‐national institution constraining that sovereignty. The concessions to national sovereignty required by EU membership are, consequently, unappealing to many Protestants; as Coupland () points out, many Protestants' euroscepticism originated in their concerns that European integration would lead to Catholic dominance.…”

Institutionalizing cultural Europeanism: between transnationalism and national identity (1948-1954)

“…In both cases, it went beyond what can be expected from a military organization, even though it did not achieve excellent results, a fact which has not been sufficiently highlighted in the literature (Milward, 1984, pp. 235-248;Coupland, 2004), with the exception of Raflik (2009, pp. 75-78).…”