Where Does Europe End? Christian Democracy and the Expansion of Europe^*

Abstract

In this article, we argue that an analysis of the conflict around the nature and limits of European integration that arose between Catholic and Protestant Christian Democrats in the post-war era can shed new light on the expansionary dynamics that gradually came to characterize the project of European integration. Catholic Christian Democrats framed the unification of Europe as a relatively exclusionary cultural-civilizational endeavour, while Protestant Christian Democrats favoured a more inclusive conception of Europe that prioritised free trade over cultural homogeneity. Focusing specifically on Germany, we suggest that the eventual resolution of the intra-party struggle between the two camps in the early 1970s was a crucial enabler for including more and more countries into the European project. For it was only thereafter that Catholic Christian Democrats began supporting the expansion of European integration beyond the core Europe of the original Six, with geopolitical concerns gradually crowding out cultural ones.

A community of shared values? Dimensions and dynamics of cultural integration in the European Union

“…This matches neatly with the cultural dynamics within the EU that we find. Recent work on the expansion of the EU and the underlying transnational-party networks that facilitated integration and their conflicts over the precise cultural ideology and image of Europe that should shape integration goes hand in hand with these findings (Hien and Wolkenstein 2021).…”

Christian Europe Redux

“…Put simply, the gradual disappearance of an older generation of devout and conservative Christian politicians around that time meant that the ideas discussed in the previous section eventually lost traction within Christian Democratic parties. As substantially younger, less pious politicians started to take over, appeals to the idea of Christian Europe or the Abendland became much rarer (see Hien & Wolkenstein, 2021). 5 Second, the steady decline of religious practice that started in tandem with the liberalising value shifts of the 1960s (Roy, 2019, pp.…”

“…This article contributes to the emerging debate on political ideologies and the European Union (see for example Forlenza, 2017;Hien, 2020;Hien & Wolkenstein, 2021;White, 2020;Wolkenstein, 2020). As White (2020White ( , p. 1288 put it in his introduction to a recent high-profile special issue on the topic, the EU is a fascinating object of study if one is interested in ideologies because it 'has been built on ideology, and also against it'.…”

“…119, 121, my emphasis). This was not the case in the mid‐twentieth century, when leading Christian Democratic politicians employed visions of a Christian Europe to justify the ambitious project of European integration (see for example Forlenza, 2017; Hien & Wolkenstein, 2021; Mitchell, 2012). With religious observance still widespread, they could expect references to the ‘spiritual foundation of abendländisch Christendom’ (Adenauer, 1946) to resonate with many Christian believers, for whom faith and cultural identity did not come apart but were closely intertwined.…”

Menapaki Demokrasi dalam Sistem Protestan di Amerika Serikat

“…Ratu Elizabeth I yang merasa tidak suka terhadap kaum Puritan, memberikan pandangan bahwa ritual-ritual yang dialaksanakan Puritan pada waktu itu terlalu demokratis dan bertentangan dengan konsep absolutisme kerajaan. Ibadah yang dijalankan Puritan siantaranya adalah berkumpul dan berdoa dengan menjunjung tinggi keshalehan (Hien & Wolkenstein, 2021).…”