> > Actually, I think that Europe's roots are decidedly pagan! > > I think one would have to be blind to imagine that Europe does > not have its > strongest roots in the Christian Faith. Just a walk through many > of the towns > and cities and a glance at the architecture of church and > cathedral gives an > indication of the role the Christian Church has played in the > European setting.
I think it would be more accurate to say that the Christian faith has had the strongest *influence* on *Western* European architecture and culture. If you move into Eastern Europe where Orthodox Christianity was the dominant paradigm, the onion domes of the church architecture shows evidence of very strong Moorish influence. I suspect this is also the case in at least some parts of Southern Europe, but perhaps more in secular buildings than churches. Furthermore, one of my conservative evangelical brother's major criticisms of Catholic traditions in Spain (where he worked with a missionary organisation for ten or so years) is that the celebration of many festivals is pagan rather than Christian. These roots must be very strong indeed to have survived so many centuries of determined Christian overlays. If the criticism of the preamble to European constitution was that it mentioned other faiths but not Christianity, then it is obviously valid. If the criticism is that it omits mention of faith/religion and they want just Christianity mentioned, I think they need to think a bit harder about what religious acknowledgement there should be before they start pushing for it. Judy -- "Politics is the work we do to keep the world safe for our spirituality" - Judith Plaskow Rev Judy Redman Uniting Church Chaplain University of New England Armidale 2351 ph: +61 2 6773 3739 fax: +61 2 6773 3749 web: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/ action for peace: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/links/peace.html email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
