Emanuel L. Paparella is a former professor of Italianlanguage and literature at the University of PuertoRico and the University of Central Florida. He is the author of various books: Hermeneutics in thePhilosophy of Giambattista Vico (Mellen Press, NewYork, 1993), A New Europe in Search of its Soul (Au-thorhouse, 2005), Europa: an Idea and a Journey(Exlibris, 2012), Tre Novelle Rusticane di GiovanniVerga (ed. 1975, Florentia Publisher), as well as innu-merable articles on Italian literature and philosophy.

He holds a BA from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, N.Y., an MA from Mid-dlebury College in Italian Literature, a M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Italian Human-ism from Yale University. He has also studied Comparative Literature atNew York University, is a former Fulbright scholar and has directed for fivesummers the study abroad program of the University of Central Floridasnd Broward College at the University of Urbino. He has published for Ital-ian journals and newspapers, the latest for Libro Aperto (April-June 2012)with an article commemorating the anniversary of the death of BenedettoCroce titled "Una rivalutazione della Filosofia di Benedetto Croce" (pp.186-190) which was reviewd in La Repubblica (July 28, 2012). He has done a major translation: Vittorio Possenti's Philosophy and Reve-lation (Ashgate Publishing, 2001), Since 2000 he has actively participatedin the debate on the European Union while lecturing and teaching hu-manities and philosophy at Barry University in Miami and Broward Collegein Davie, Florida. Over the last ten years or so he has published some 400 articles of a philo-sophical-literary nature in the on-line international magazine Ovi. He livesin Sunrise, Florida, with his wife Cathy of forty six years. He has threedaughters: Cristina, Alessandra and Francesca and three grandchildrenSophia, Nicholas and Adriana. A fourth is on its way.

07Special Report 07 | January 2015Christianity and the European Identity

by Emanuel L. Paparella

www.moderndiplomacy.eu

10. Western Civilization at the Crossroads

16. A Revolutionary New View of History and Humanity

22. Vico’s Hermaneutical “Understanding” of Humanity

26.“Man is his own History” Leads to Self-Knowledge

30. Christianity: a Private Affair or Part of the European Heritage and Identity?

36. Alcide De Gasperi”s Humanistic Vision of the European Union

42. Klaus Held on Religion, Science and Democracy in European Culture

46.The Tragic Loss of the European Spiritual Identity

56. The Return of the Gods and the EU Constitution transformed into a Treaty

62. The EU Constitution: The Cart before the Horse?

CONTENTS

72. Dante’s Vision of a United Europe

74. Vaclav Havel: Authentic Humanist and Cultural Hero for our Troubled Times

82. Jurgen Habermas on the Vision of a Post-Secular Europe

86. Christianity and Europe: Tony Blair at Yale University

92. Christopher Dawson and the Making of Europe

98. Europa Quo Vadis?

etween the years 2005 and 2012 Ipublished three books on the Euro-pean Union. They are titled A New

Europe in Search of its Soul: Essays on the Eu-ropean Union’s Cultural Identity and theTransatlantic Dialogue (Authorhouse, 2005),and Europa: an Idea and a Journey: Essays onthe Origins of the EU’s Cultural Identity andits Present Economic-Political Crisis (Ex Libris,2012), and Europe beyond the Euro (Ovimagazine e-book).The titles and even the illustrations of thegoddess Europa embarking on a journeystraddling Zeus disguised as a bull, give thereaders a preliminary idea of what thosebooks are all about. In analyzing the present thorny geopoliticaleconomic problems of the EU, those essays

attempt to identify the root causes of thoseproblems which ultimately are found to beintegral part of the wider problematic of cul-tural identity, beyond mere political and eco-nomic considerations. The three bookscontain a minimum of 60 essay on a varietyof topics, out of which I have carefully se-lected 16 conforming to the theme of this ar-ticle, slightly changing their titles at times.Several of those essays have been publishedalready in Ovi magazine. It is instructive that when Italian national uni-fication was finally accomplished in 1860Massimo D’Azeglio, an Italian patriot, prover-bially quipped that “now that we have madeItaly, we need to make the Italians” which, inmy opinion is a perfect exemplification ofplacing the cart before the horse.

B

“If the religious and Christian substratum of this continent is marginalized in its role as inspiration of

ethical and social efficacy, we would be negatingnot only the past heritage of Europe but a future worthy of European Man—and by that I mean

every European Man, be he a believer or a non believer.”

Pope John-Paul II(from a speech at the EU Parliament on 10/11/1988)