What Is Deep Europe?
Where Christendom Still Lives
“Once there were fine, resplendent times when Europe was a Christian land, when one Christendom occupied this humanly constituted continent. One great common interest united the remotest provinces of this broad spiritual realm. Without great worldly possessions, one Head guided and unified the great political forces. A numerous guild, to which everyone had access, stood directly beneath him and carried out his behests and strove with zeal to confirm his beneficent power. Every member of this organization was universally honored, and if the common people sought comfort or help, protection or counsel from this member, and in return were happy to provide generously for his manifold needs, he also found protection, respect, and a hearing among the more powerful, and everyone cared for these chosen men, equipped with miraculous powers, as for children of Heaven whose presence and favor spread manifold blessing abroad. Childlike faith bound men to their pronouncements. How cheerfully every man could fulfill his earthly labors when, through the agency of these holy persons, a secure future was prepared for him and every misstep forgiven, when every discolored spot in life was obliterated by them and made clean. They were the experienced helmsmen upon the great unknown sea, in whose keeping one might disdain all storms and count on a sure attainment of the coast and a landing at the world of the true home.”
— Novalis, “Christendom or Europe.”
We live in strange times. We are able to cross the Atlantic in a few hours, when in our ancestors’ days such a journey was usually a life sentence. The pace of change is breakneck, and even the wary can be fooled by AI-generated news. But despite it all, each of us – particularly those of European descent, whether in the Mother Continent or in one of the settler countries overseas – are heirs to an extremely rich and deep heritage. Certain it is that the European peoples are separated by language, ethnicity, and version of Christianity from each other. But there is another division in, with, and under all the others: it is precisely which side of the ocean or the Urals they live on.