At the Catholic Herald, Samuel Gregg, research director for the Acton Institute, reviews Oliver Roy’s new book, Is Europe Christian?
Is Europe Christian? A professor at Florence’s European University Institute, Roy seeks to outline what is happening in Europe vis-à-vis religion and what this means for Europe’s self-understanding.
The first thing to note is that Roy does not have an agenda. His book is not concerned with bolstering or damaging any particular cause, whether it is liberal religion, Catholicism, Islam or secular substitutes for faith. Though he stresses that much European angst about religion proceeds from concern about Islam, Roy illustrates that much deeper currents are at work that have prompted a series of interrelated crises throughout Europe which cannot be left unresolved forever.
