The notion of ‘Christian Europe’ has returned with a vengeance in recent times.
It figures prominently in the political rhetoric of conservative nationalists, who link appeals to Europe’s Christian heritage and identity to avowedly illiberal political projects. This paper examines this revived idea of Christian Europe by contrasting it with the meanings that prominent Christian Democratic leaders ascribed to the term in the post-war era. This contrast is insightful because it reveals what is distinctive about present understandings of Christian Europe, and it is politically relevant because some of the most committed contemporary proponents of Christian Europe claim to be ‘true’ Christian Democrats. Using Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde’s work on the emergence of the modern state as a broad analytical frame, I show that today’s visions of Christian Europe are more modern, statist and secular than their post-war counterparts, but both are equally at unease with deeply pluralist liberal-democratic political orders.
Fabio Wolkenstein is Assistant Professor of Transformations of Democracy at the University of Vienna, Austria. His research interests lie in the fields of democratic theory and political sociology, with a special focus on the study of political parties, representation, and political ideologies. His first book, Rethinking Party Reform, was published with Oxford University Press in 2019 and his new book, Die dunkle Seite der Christdemokratie [The Dark Side of Christian Democracy] will appear with C.H. Beck in summer 2022.
Marta Lorimer is LSE Fellow in European Politics at the European Institute, LSE.