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The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God

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Weigel suggests Europe is a society adrift, untied from the source of its greatness - the very cultural foundation which provided the values making Europe great is now disintegrating, leaving Europe (and soon the entire West) on sinking sand. More specifically, as the past is erased, re-written, or ignored the rich Judeo-Christian history of Europe is being left behind. And at what cost?

Weigel asks provocative questions... Why is European productivity dwindling to an all time low? Why is European politics rife with senselessness? Why does Sweden have a considerably higher level of its population living below the poverty line? Why is Europe undergoing the 'greatest sustained reduction in European population since the Black Death of the 14th century'?

Could the recent woes of Europe be tied to the ever decreasing Christian minority on this now decidedly post-Christian continent?

As I ponder Weigel's book I'm reminded of Orwell's quote, "We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." Weigel restates the obvious, "culture determines civilization". And he goes on to say, without its distinctly Christian history, Europe would not be what it is. Unfortunately, he may have more accurately written, `Europe would not have been what it was.'

However, from the perspective of the Christian tradition there is more to lament than the secondary effects of a decline in productivity, and art. That is, merely reviving religion as an end in itself is not what Europe needs, but rather a call back to its first love, the God who blesses and rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Of course the current intellectual elites regard God as an embarrassment as they continue to scoff at His name. What is the final price? The world has yet to know.

The issues covered are perhaps the most important issues facing the West as we begin the third millenium. We'll hear a lot about it as the de-Christianization of Europe seems to be number one item on the new Pope's agenda.

The book is very important in that most Westerners - and I mean the educated westerners - don't even realize that a stage is being set for a war of religion/ideologies, just as liberals (in the American sense of the word) have convinced themselves that religion doesn't matter. See the review by an Urs Guber below who states that "Italy just happens to have the densest Roman Catholic population." I'm sure Urs believes she (?) knows a lot about Europe, but the statement betrays her complete ignorance of the trends under way.

Italy is one of the LEAST Catholic countries in Western Europe, as - for instance - reported by CNN recently; the percentage of practicing Catholics - and Christians in general - has been falling rapidly in Italy, Germany, and France. Apart from an identity crisis it represents (whose long-term consequences are hard to predict), it has opened a great opportunity to Islam. Last year, a mosque was built at the site of a Catholic church in Granada (if you don't know what that means, you had better read up on history), and it's no coincidence that the largest mosque in Europe was built a stone's throw from the Vatican. Why the anti-religious left doesn't find that troubling is beyond me. Is Catholic Italy worse that Italy AD 2060 under sharia law? There will be no fashion in Muslim Italy - that's guaranteed. So even if you don't give a damn about religion or ideology, but couldn't live without Armani or Blahnik, you should be concerned.

Why is it that the 70,000 word constitution of the European Union does not once mention the term `Christianity'? How is it that the framers of the EU document utterly fail to acknowledge the Christian heritage of Europe? Can European democracy long flourish in a culture that rejects the heritage that give birth to it? And what future is there for a free Europe which has spiritual and cultural amnesia, forgetting its very foundations?

These questions are explored in an important new book by American social commentator and Catholic theologian, George Weigel. He argues that there are two main competing visions for the future of Europe. One is that of secularism as represented by the La Grande Arche in Paris, a huge glass and metal cube built to commemorate the bicentenary of the French Revolution.

The other is Christianity, as represented by Notre-Dame Cathedral, which tourists are informed can easily fit into the grand cube.

One vision follows a two-hundred year history of humanism, secularism, and atheism. The other follows the two thousand year history of the Christian church. Which vision, asks Weigel, can better protect democracy, human rights and meaning and purpose for modern Europe? Which vision will hold sway?

Weigel argues that the answers to these questions will also help explain the issue of the "Europe problem". For example, how does one account for Europe's weakness in the face of international terrorism, it refusal to recognise the failures - and terror - of communism, its declining fertility rates, its fixation with international organisations such as the International Criminal Court and the UN, and its rampant Christophobia?

Why has Europe repudiated its Judeo-Christian foundations and embraced secular humanism? Can such a Faustian bargain be in its best interests?

Weigel argues that nations survive not just on economic or political strengths, but on cultural, moral and spiritual realities as well. It is culture and religion that ultimately makes for strong nations. What men and women honour, cherish, worship and value will determine a nation's future.

But as modern Europe has done its best to minimise, ignore or repudiate the moral/cultural/religious factor, it is in the process of digging its own grave.

After traversing the various historical and philosophical cross-currents leading up the current "Europe problem", Weigel reminds us of what Europe would look like if denuded of its Christian heritage. Gone would be a myriad of famous names, which he takes pains to list. Here are just a few, from the `B' list: Bach, Bacon, Becket, Bede, Benedict, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonhoeffer, Boniface, and Bosch.

It was out of the Judeo-Christian worldview that such thinkers, writers, artists and scientists emerged. To seek to wish away that background is to commit cultural and social suicide, something Europe in now firmly embarked upon. In truth, "there is no understanding Europe without Christianity".

Indeed, were it not for the Christian heritage that brought them into existence, we would not be experiencing the many institutions we now enjoy and take for granted (democracy, rule of law, open markets, genuine pluralism, etc.). As Weigel reminds us, the democratic project did not emerge as "a kind of political virgin birth". It arose out of rich soil: that of Judeo-Christian religion.

Solzhenitsyn long ago warned that it is because we have forgotten God that our current troubles are upon us. Europe is now at a crossroads. It can re-embrace its past, and enjoy again the well-oiled machinery of democracy and freedom. Or it can reject that past, embrace its opposite, and see that machinery break down.

A society cannot hope to hang on the institutions it values if it rejects the preconditions for those institutions. Europe was birthed in a Judeo-Christian environment, and can only flourish if kept there. If post-Christian Europe continues to embrace the cube, the future looks bleak indeed. If it once again embraces the cathedral, then there is hope. And the history of Europe - and the world - hangs in the balance.

Weigel is one of my favorite authors, this is the fourth of his books that I have bought and read.

The seeds for Cube & Cathedral have already been sown in Weigel's book 'Letters to a Young Catholic', but are greatly expanded and footnoted in this latest endeavor.

The book delivers exactly what it promises, an analysis of how and why Western Europe is distancing itself from its Christian Roots and what the consequences will be. The book addresses recent events that have been extensively covered in newspapers, and also harkens back hundred of years to philophers whose ideas helped make us who we are today.

The tone of the book is prophetic, in the sense it warns on what will happen if we turn away from God. Weigel also offers hope, for the role each of us must play to turn our world to Christ. I got an overwhelming sense of Salvation History in reading this book, Church Time is slow and deliberate, giving each of us many chances to influence history. However, I also see how my role is a small one because there are so many of us throughout space and time also created by God, also called to holiness and saintliness.

The final hope offered is the incredible impact the World Youth Day agenda is having, in preparing the world for a rebirth in Christianity.

The book is a quick read, wide margins and ample spacing between lines. It lends itself to rereading and highlighting of ideas that can be used over and over again in daily converstaion with others.

George Weigel has written a provacative book. His thesis, crudely stated, is that a political life consistent with the aspiration for individual freedom cannot survive "without God --the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus." The threat of a godless Europe, Weigel maintains, manifests itself in Europe's refusal to acknowledge the role of Christianity in the evolution of European civilization. What has emerged in its stead is atheistic humanism; that is, the conviction that modernity and freedom require a radically secular society. A secular political community, in Weigel's view, cannot be a moral community. It was Christianity, after all, says Weigel, that, through the Investiture controversy and other events, taught itself and European secular power about the importance of restraining power, of confining the role of the state. It is the Church, specifically the Catholic Church that provides the cultural ground on which a politics of consent could be built, thus providing Europe with an "anti-totalitarian vaccine [injected] into the civilizational bloodstream." (Set aside for the moment, the efficacy of the "vaccine".) Weigel's short book is really two books. The first half concerns itself with the drift toward atheistic humanism described above. But the second half is infused with a concern about the growing population of Muslims in today's Europe IF those Muslims drift toward a radical version of Islam. For Weigel, the war is not between Christianity and Islam per se, but between a militant, heart-felt Islam and the absence of a countervailing Christianity. It will not be the march of an "Islamist army," but the result will still resemble North Africa in the 7th century where, within eight brief decades, the "once flourishing Greco-Roman-Christian civilization...disappeared into the sands." Weigel is to be praised for articulating clearly some of the central problems facing Europe today. But his argument won't find easy acceptance. For one thing, he tends to find a problem of belief under every stone; hence, that Europe can't agree on the duration of a work week is but another sign of its ongoing moral decay. Moreover, when he does urge Europe to re-assert its Christian heritage, he draws on very recent theological arguments. Inevitably, I think, because, as an Institution, the Church's historical record is long, complex, multi-faceted and, in a word, mixed. Finally, the real opponent to Weigel scarcely makes an appearance in this ring. It is not atheistic humanism, but an assertive pluralism which will claim to afford the promise of toleration and co-existence across the spectrum of believers and non-believers. All that said, Weigel has given us quite a read -- hate it, love it or be vexed by it -- The Cube and the Cathedral leaves its mark.

Anyone wanting a quick way to assets the general merits and intellectual muscle flexed in the book should glance at the chapter headed `Two Ideas of Freedom', contrasting the secular and sacred versions of Freedom with luminous brevity. However, the general easy-reading contemporary nature of the prose will be better gauged from the later chapter `The Cost of Boredom', which sums up why white post-Christian Europe cannot be bothered to procreate with sufficient vigour to stem its population decline, and our `postpolitical wilderness' of rule by faceless bureaucrats.

As an American theologian and the biographer of Pope John Paul II, George Weigel is well placed to speak with perspective on Europe's current problems. The main thrust of the book is a critique of atheistic secular humanism (ASH) and its many virus variants which have infected the Euro-Russian continent. The emphasis is on the 20th century, and picks up the root philosophical and cultural causes of World War I and II, and the rebellion of the `Les Soixante-Huitards' (1968 riots) with remarkably fluent and coherent reference to Western European history as far back as the High Middle Ages of Aquinas and Occam (1200-), and glancing reference much further back. The Cube is the intellectual symbol of the sterile closed-universe ASH viewpoint, the architectural colossus of 'La Grande Arche' of Paris, being an open cube of white marble and glass about 40 stories tall and 348 feet wide. The cathedral is the rather more famous church of Notre Dame, which despite its ancient complexities and beauty in spire and tower, would `fit comfortably inside the Grand Arch'. This current edition is dated 2005, and probably just missed the rioting and looting and epidemic of car-burnouts that afflicted France that year.

It is difficult to do anything like reviewing justice to this book at one reading, but one of the central themes is that `western Europe is committing a form of demographic suicide' (p.5), with a general greying of the population and coming universal pensions crisis due to a birthrate being less than the replacement rate. He might have added that Russia currently has an annual death-rate that exceeds the birthrate by 750,000, but his purpose does not extend to a proper vilification of communism. The root cause of our lack of reproductive enthusiasm is analysed to be spiritual nihilism, emptiness, and lack of purpose in life, having rejected the Christian roots of our historical culture. Its criticism of the purblind inability of the EU to see the problem, let alone grapple with it, will gladden the hearts of those who oppose this political con-trick that is the eurozone--despite the (to me) astonishing revelations he makes of the catholic Christians who were the architects of the whole scheme.

He is frequently at pains to trace the intellectual, cultural, and moral roots of western Europe (the eastern empire is sparingly but properly referenced, and not ignored as is so often the case). Recently the ruling EU elites totally refused to recognise the Christian heritage of Europe in the drafting of its 70,000 word constitutional treaty. Our roots apparently jumping from the classical civilisation of Greece and Rome to that of the humanist Enlightenment of Descartes and Kant (which merely extracted the parts it liked from Christian culture, and promptly forgot what it takes to develop and preserve them, which is a living faith in a Judaeo-Christian God.)

He invites us to contemplate a striking list of Christian scientists, artists, politicians, leaders, warriors, and philosophers--and asks us to imagine Europe [history itself, I would say. Just consider that we only discovered the gas oxygen about 225 years ago. We could not even begin to describe the chemistry of burning or human respiration before this], without their contribution. And this is a list which is so wide-ranging that it includes Milton, Mendel, Michaelangelo, Wesley and Wilberforce, while it omits Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Handel, and dozens of others.

The other main theme is euro `Christophobia', which is detailed in many ways, from the persecutory attitude to the Catholic Professor Rocco Buttiglione in his proposed place in the EU government, to the universal demand for tolerance which includes rather madly includes rigid intolerance of any discussion of the Christian religion or its place in influencing civic society. Altogether, this adds up to the best analysis of secularism that I have ever read.

The statement of the very obvious that is the underlying theme of the themes, is that western European civilisation was built by the Catholic church. There is more balance and a gentler tone here in the treatment of the subject, but the author is generally in line with Thomas Woods book, `How the Catholic Church built Western Civilisation'. Which is well paired with this one, before or after making little difference.

The only weakness of this book is that it understates its case. It would be easy to adduce more evidence of outright damage and incoherence of ASH in our literature alone (Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Sartre, Nietzsche, Camus), and then as a whisky chaser consider the intellectual flight from science. Professor Robin Dunbar's `The Trouble with Science', published in 1995 traces the problem in Britain back at least twenty years. And is still seen in the rapid and ongoing rejection of chemistry and physics in the school system throughout, from GCSE at 16, to university graduate, a trend which is steadily shutting down departments in these subjects as I write. My second reading of this book starts right now, and I can also see how it would help one or two of my friends, with Christmas about to hove into view. Read them and pray.

Since the dramatic end to the Cold War, there has been a major shift in the United States'relationship with Europe. Robert Kagan, in his "Of Paradise and Power," highlights the US's shift from multinationalism ot unilateralism. Now, George Weigel in his "The Cube and the Cathedral" shifts gears from political and economic differences to examine the growing spiritual and cultural disconnect that we have with Europe. These, he argues, are the deepest currents of history...and America and Europe are drifting apart.

History is driven over the long haul by culture - by what men and women honor, cherish, and worship; by what societies deem to be true and good and noble; by the expressions they give to those convictions in language, literature, and arts; by what individuals and societies are willing to stake their lives on.

Weigel traces Europe's contributions fostered by Christianity to culture that brought protection of human rights, promotion of the common good, the defense of legitimate pluralism, and give an account of moral commitments that made democracy possible...all of which led to the great "American Experiment."

Now, Europe has created a new constitution, one whose preamble denies its very Christian heritage. Weigel argues that this is the culmination of a trend within "Old Europe" to a vacuous secularism. A shift from God to the new gods - secularist deities that have broken the bonds between faith and the will to a future, between the hope of a future and self-confidence.

Weigel in his analysis goes on not only to warn Americans that the idea of shared Western civilization is becoming obsolete...and that the seeds of what Europe to its current state also show signs of life here in the US. We must be vigilant to insure that post-modernity secularism does not also bring the "American Experiment" to a silent disastrous conclusion.

This is a good insightful read for those who are interested in underlying global trends.

The cathedral in the title is Notre Dame, now overshadowed in cultural importance by the Arc de la Defense, the ultramodernist "cube" that dominates an office complex outside Paris.

Mr. Weigel does an excellent job of exposing the secularism of modern Europe, and tracing it back through European history all the way back to the 14th century, when William of Occam argued for "nominalism." According to his philosophy, universal concepts such as "justice" or "freedom" and qualities such as "good" do not exist in the abstract, but are merely words that denote instances of what they describe. Using Occam's nominalism as a basis, then there is no such thing as human nature, and thus there are no universal moral truths that can be read from human nature. If there are no universal moral truths, then religion, positing them, is merely a form of oppression or myth, one from which Europe's elites see themselves as liberated. Thus leaving Europe's great churches as empty relics of times past.

Weigel does ignor one cause for all of the empty churches. Many of the churches in Europe are "state churches" - The Church of England, Denmark, Sweden, etc.- are remnants of state churches. These churches have always operated as arms of the state, never taking any real moral stand on anything. Young people today are hungry for taking a stand - and European young people are no exception. The author points this out himself when he mentions the popularity of Pope John Paul II among the youth of Europe, who was definitely a man unafraid to take a stand that might anger people, as long as he knew he was right. Years of standing against the Communists in Poland had taught John Paul this. People will not sacrifice their Sunday mornings to hear someone sleepwalk through a meaningless ceremony and utter a lukewarm sermon whose lesson is "Motherhood is Good". They will, however, sacrifice their lives for a Gospel that stands against the evil in this world, and is unafraid at defining that evil. The problem with those in Europe is that they seldom hear such a Gospel, and are thus trapped in the secular train of thought in which they have been so skillfully indoctrinated, one that the author articulates so well.

I don't think that the author is trying to prescribe Roman Catholicism per se as the answer to all of Europe's problems as some have criticized. Because the author is Catholic himself, however, he draws his examples from Roman Catholicism specifically since that is the tradition he knows. Instead, the author is suggesting that Europe needs to realize that its ascendency to greatness and its falls into chaos correlate directly to its following/rejection of the teachings of Christ. Otherwise, he warns, the growing numbers of European newcomers with less tolerant religious traditions will use the secular European religion of tolerance to turn Europe's Christian residents into second class citizens.

I really enjoyed this book, but you have to read it very carefully because the author tends to wander a bit. Also, I think the title is somewhat misleading as there is virtually nothing in this book about America or politics on either continent. For these reasons only did I subtract a single star from its rating.

excellent book, excellent points! those secular Europeans are destroying the continent- one has to be clearly an imbecil to support the exclusion of Christianity in the EU Constitution. fortunately, it will not be ratified as it stands today, even in France! Europe(ans) must wake-up!

At its best, this book poses a question using "the cube" (L'Arche de la Defense) and "the cathedral" (Notre Dame) as representatives for two cultures:

"Which culture, I wondered, would better protect human rights? Which culture would more firmly secure the moral foundations of democracy? The culture that built this stunning, rational, angular, geometrically precise but essentially featureless cube? Or the culture that produced the vaulting and bosses, the gargoyles and flying buttresses, the nooks and crannies, the asymmetries and holy 'unsameness' of Notre-Dame?" (2)

He is not suggesting "a return to something like the Middle Ages... That is impossible and would be undesirable if it were possible. The answer may lie, however, in a different way of reading the modern project" (167), and for that he looks to John Paul II. "John Paul II did not propose a return to the premodern world. Rather, he offered a thoroughly modern alternative reading of modernity" (169). Europe is dying, says our author, because people have no hope. The dominant reading of modernity cannot offer hope, even a reason to reproduce, while John Paul II's alternative modernity can. It brings us a freedom to be excellent, not just a freedom to do whatever we want to do.

Weigel argues that 'atheistic humanism' and 'exclusive humanism' lead to totalitarian oppression, but 'Christian humanism' can actually give an account of why to have tolerance, pluralism, inalienable rights, etc. The reason: Christianity offers a transcendent moral reference point. From this he concludes not that we should thrust Christianity on everybody but instead that the public square cannot be worldview-neutral; instead, communication in the public square should be based on certain shared moral commitments, though we may each have different sources for those commitments.

Unfortunately, once we pass page 2's excellent analogy -- the "people of the cube" and the "people of the cathedral" -- the book isn't particularly good. It lightly sketches an argument about the problems of Europe and the promise of a Christian moral foundation for the public square and only hints at arguments as to why 'atheistic humanism' and 'exclusive humanism' cannot provide that moral foundation. None of this is sufficiently argued so you will only come out of the book agreeing with him if you came into the book really wanting to do so.

As a final positive, Weigel heavily relies on sources that are more than worth pursuing (Henri de Lubac, for instance), so "The Cube and The Cathedral" turns out to be an excellent annotated bibliography. The subjects he raises (such as whether we view freedom as freedom for excellence or freedom of indifference, Aquinas vs. Ockham) and the authors he cites (such as John Paul II) are definitely relevant and definitely worth looking into.

My personal analysis: I think he's pointing to some real problems, but I also think he's trying much too hard to salvage Neuhaus's vision of Christianity in the public square.

So: Read the first two pages, then skim through the footnotes and index,and look into the authors and ideas you find there.