Edy Korthals Altes, Heart and Soul for Europe: An Essay on Spiritual Renewal.
Falconer, Alan D.
Assen, Netherlands, Van Gorcum and Co. 1999, 189pp.
In 1990, Jacques Delors, then president of the European Commission,
challenged a group of church leaders to reflect with him on "a
heart and soul for Europe". This book by a former Dutch diplomat
and president of the World Conference on Religion and Peace is a
passionate, analytical and articulate response to this call. While the
author clearly recognizes that the call is appropriate to most modern
societies and to all religious traditions, he stresses its importance
for European nations as the theatres which initiated the wave of
rationalism and materialism evident throughout the world, and for
Christianity as lying at the base of European perceptions and values.
In an analysis which has been echoed in World Council of Churches
assembly reports since the Uppsala assembly in 1968, and in the writings
of poets, authors and politicians in this same period--Vaclav Havel in
particular comes to mind--Altes identifies three major threats to our
contemporary world. The three "time-bombs" of nuclear
annihilation, ecological disaster and violent social conflict are
analyzed and discerned as arising from what Havel once called "the
arrogant anthropocentrism of man". Thus the author calls for a
radical reorientation in society and the awareness of the Transcendent.
Indeed, one of the most compelling insights of the book is that of the
loss of transcendence in European consciousness. While this loss is seen
to emanate from the Enlightenment, which also exhibited insights which
the author sees as positive, he notes a contemporary yearning for
spirituality.
This yearning is described as an invisible but potent force in real
life because it addresses the whole person, not just one aspect of human
personality. It provides a "magnetic force" for living a full,
meaningful life. To develop this theme, Altes recounts his personal
journey of Christian faith and demonstrates influences from a wide range
of Christian thinkers and activists. From this personal odyssey, he
suggests a number of roles which the churches might play in the European
project--the provision of a place for contemplation; the defence of
human values; the commitment to a human world; and prophetic witness and
engagement in reconciliation.
In the final section of the book, Altes discusses the implications
of these perspectives for addressing the major threats facing the world
and providing a vision of a healthy counter-culture.
The questions which the author addresses are crucial for European
societies. In his analysis he draws on a wide range of political, social
and economic data and reports. In his address to the churches he
commands an impressive grasp of contemporary ecumenical and Roman
Catholic documents. The perspectives offered to help change society are
apposite and worthy of deep reflection. The book would have been
enhanced had the author drawn on the analysis being developed throughout
the 1990s by Grace Davie, among others, on the different spiritualities
and attitudes to the churches emerging in different parts of Europe: see
e.g. Religion in Modern Europe (Oxford UP 2000). Altes's analysis
of spirituality might also have benefited from attention being paid to
an understanding of the Holy Spirit's agency in the thought,
worship and discipleship of the Christian.
The volume leaves me with his searing question addressed to the
churches and to European societies: "What are you doing with your
knowledge, your possibilities, your whole heart, your mind and strength
at this crucial period of history?" (p. 129). This valuable book is
an invitation to the churches in Europe and beyond--to reconsider their
priorities in the light of the threats to humankind. Since the churches
failed to join Jacques Delors in his quest to explore a "heart and
soul" for Europe, it is to be hoped that this volume will rekindle the question.
Alan D. Falconer
Alan D. Falconer is the director of the WCC's Faith and Order
secretariat.
