The EU and the culpable silence of English speaking political theology

As far as I am aware, there is today not a single available academic monograph in the English language offering a political theology of the EU. Pause for a moment to take that startling fact in.

I happen know of two books in preparation offering Christian assessments of the EU, both set to argue a strongly euro-sceptical case (although I’m not sure whether their authors would class them ‘academic monographs’). In the early years of what was to become the EU there was a proliferation of rich theological writing on the new structure, but virtually all of it was in continental European languages. Continental European political theologians – mostly Catholic, and many associated with the Christian Democratic movement – treated the emerging European political project with great seriousness and devoted substantial resources of intellect, time and dialogue to reflecting on its justification (or not), its purposes and its possible futures.

This is not to say that English-language theology has neglected ‘Europe’. From Christopher Dawson’s celebrated The Making of Europe (1932) there have been important contributions to a theological reading of broader European culture and society. Church historians have written on the relationship of the churches to European integration (although that does not count as a ‘political theology of the EU’ per se). There is, moreover, now an abundance of empirical literature on the contribution of religion in general to the EU and the role of religious actors in relation to EU institutions. There is also a plethora of generic works of political theology addressing themes relevant to an interpretation of political entities like the EU. And there have been significant attempts to write political theologies of, or about, the UK (or its components, notably Scotland).

But, in English, nothing at all of substance on the EU itself, in spite of the fact that English-speaking political theologians have had nearly 60 years to think about it!

I hope we feel the force of this indictment. The near-complete silence of English-speaking political theologians on the EU – the second most important political context for British citizens after the UK state – is a serious failure of responsibility. It has left the present generation of Christians, now tasked with participating in the most important constitutional decision for a generation, theologically under-resourced and inarticulate. Hence many Christian contributions to the referendum debate are merely historical (‘our past is interwoven with Europe’s’), pragmatic (‘the cost of leaving is too high’) or vaguely ethical (‘we stand for justice and solidarity’) rather than theologically well-grounded. This at a time when we need, more than ever, seasoned wisdom and intellectual clarity about what the Christian faith has to say about the future of this extraordinary, and increasingly fragile, political experiment.

By a ‘political theology of the EU’ I don’t mean a theological legitimation of the EU as it is. On the contrary, a robust political theology will fearlessly expose the defects, fallacies and ideological distortions operative in any political institution or system as much as it might affirm their strengths and virtues. Such a theology might, conceivably, conclude that the EU, whatever its laudable past Christian inspirations, is now irredeemable and should be dismantled (or withdrawn from). That is emphatically not my own view but it is not one that can be ruled out in advance (thus I look forward to engaging with the two books I mentioned at the start). But even if a political theology concluded that sufficient of the original Christian inspiration remained in the EU to warrant its continuation, or that new sources of Christian inspiration could be mustered to that end, it will likely call for a very significant, long-term overhaul of its structures and objectives. And various political theologians will, of course, continue to argue fiercely about what those structures and objectives should be, even if they find some common ground on foundational theological principles.

Thus even if British citizens vote ‘yes’ in the referendum – as I passionately hope they will – British Christian citizens and politicians will still stand in great need of theological resources to inform their reflection on what the future of the EU shall be. A first step might be to acknowledge our comparative resourcelessness, eat humble pie and seek advice from our continental counterparts (although they themselves might have to dig back into their own archives to retrieve what their own traditions have said on the matter). Then we shall need to ear-mark far greater resources than we have hitherto thought necessary to begin to remedy our gaping theological deficit. (A modest summons in that direction, we hope, is the collection of essays in political theology that I and Gary Wilton have edited, God and the EU: Faith in the European Project, Routledge, 2016. See also the thoughtful new report by Ben Ryan, A soul for the union, (Theos 2016).

A political theology of the EU won’t generate detailed policy programmes or constitutional blueprints but it could, at best, help the next generation of British and EU political actors to think with greater theological clarity and act with greater political wisdom as they seek to shape the sprawling, fumbling political entity that has become the EU and that they will be tasked to guide into the future.

About the author

Jonathan Chaplin is Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics (KLICE), Cambridge, a member of the Cambridge University Divinity Faculty and a Senior Fellow of Cardus. He is a specialist in Christian political thought. His latest book, co-edited with Gary Wilton, is “God and the EU: Faith in the European Project” (Routledge, 2016).