European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

BODERLINE EUROPEANS: NATIONALISMS AND FUNDAMENTALISMS 139its heart and as a critical point of reference for everything else arehuman rights, which is precisely what fundamentalism attacked. Thetype of Europe that is being suggested here is a Europe which improvesthe modern orientation that grows in its bosom and fundamentalismaims at fighting that orientation.Do we have any instances of this up-to-date fundamentalismamongst us and what role is it playing vis-à-vis the construction ofEuropean identity? I mentioned in the previous section that certainnationalisms may be regarded as secularised forms of fundamentalism 4 .However, if fundamentalism is a phenomenon that unites politics andreligion to the detriment of individual autonomy, we ought to seespecifically to what extent it survives in the self-affirmation of Europe’smost significant religions. Obviously, the most relevant one is Christianity,but the presence of Islam is also important, initially as the other symbolof evil and error fought against, and presently as that which is alreadyamongst us, which is also us 5 .With regards to Christianity, diverse observations would have to bemade according to its various branches and historical epochs. Here Iwill just make some remarks about Roman Catholicism. One ought toacknowledge that the reaction of the Catholic authority to the successof the French Revolution was deeply fundamentalist. It was not until the1960´s, with John XIII´s Pacem in Terris and the second Vatican Councilthat this orientation was officially discarded. The fact that this tookplace recently explains why, now and then, explicitly or implicitly,outbreaks of fundamentalism still occur; for example, when Christianityfor Europe or some of its nations is desired. The thought of the word“Christianity”, which takes us back to the Middle Ages, suggests, in anycase, that Catholic fundamentalism does not necessarily want to be “onthe borderline” of European construction: it may have a national-stateversion, mixing Catholic and national traditions, and from there aimsolely at the construction of the national-Catholic identity; but it may4We would also have to qualify this statement. Some of them —for example, theBasque nationalism led by Sabino Arana— emerged as fundamentalist ideologies withall the religious implications of the term, even though they later on abandoned thatnationalism. In others —think of the Balkans area— the connections between nationalismand religious fundamentalism are still there. Of course, Franco´s nationalism wasalso fully fundamentalist.5Of course, there is also Judaism, but because it was historically persecuted inEurope —Nazism carried this persecution to its highest point— its influence on thesecular world was more indirect. However, the fact that the three great book religionshave a tendency towards fundamentalism has been manifest in the consequences that acertain type of Judaism is presently having in the State of Israel.