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Document Details : Title: The Historical Place of Russia and Ukraine in the European Cultural Space Subtitle: In Search of a European Christian Identity Author(s): VAN DEN BERCKEN, Wil Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies Volume: 57 Issue: 3-4 Date: 2005 Pages: 237-256 DOI: 10.2143/JECS.57.3.2005902 Abstract : In defending the Christian values in the debate about European identity, the Orthodox Church shares the same historical, cultural and ethical arguments as the Roman Catholic Church. The two churches discovered this common interest only recently. For centuries Christian religion has played a formative role in the creation of a European identity and has left an indelible mark, even though Christianity was theologically and ideologically divided. When toute l’Europe s’appelait la Chrétienté (at least formally), the churches never really cared about this European identity. In the twentieth-first century the idea of a Christian Europe has largely gone and the various churches now seemingly can do no more than trying to keep alive its memory and its rich cultural heritage. But Christianity is after all a universal religion, and not just the product of European civilisation. |
