Your Email:

Subject:

Message:
Entry: A New Humanism in Europe Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/a_new_humanism_in_europe#6174 Post contents: Paul Gottfried is quite correct: Catholic and conservative Traditionalism operates successfully in those nations (or regions) where there is the existence of what the late (and much lamented) Catholic philosophy Frederick Wilhelmsen called "public orthodoxy"--that is, at a minimum, a shared sense of the the public weal, an understanding of the limits of the common good, and a recognition of certain broad principles that must direct society. Thus, a (formerly) Catholic Spain or Ireland (and perhaps a Catholic Poland) might or might have possessed such a "public orthodoxy," and thus the grounds for the success of Traditionalism. Christian Democracy has been, let's face, a terrible solvent, an experiment that not only did not strengthen these societies, but acted to destroy them, first internally, and then externally. Even Jacques Maritain recognized towards the end of his life the inherent problems in "la democratie chretien." In contemporary Europe, Traditionalism, if it is to be reborn at all, must recover those principles, and to do so, the most effective means is through a reinvigorated regionalism (e.g. in Belgium, the Balkans, perhaps Italy and even Germany), and a nuanced nationalism and appeal to ethnic pride. Over all this, there must be an adherence to the Faith, and a commitment to justice and those restorative measures necessary to correct some sixty years that can only be described as "a mistake." Sent at: 2008 11 22