Europe

What does it mean to speak of "Euro-spirituality?" Or "Christian spirituality in Europe?" The idea that either of these questions would be worthy of sustained critical reflection might seem unlikely. After all, there is a long-standing perception that European Christian spirituality is practically synonymous with Christian spirituality itself, that to speak of Christian spirituality is to speak of a tradition that emerged and flourished on European soil, whose main practices, doctrines, texts and artistic expressions found their mature expression there. To reflect on Christian spirituality, then, is de facto to reflect upon European Christian spirituality. The inadequacy of this way of thinking is, at least from our present perspective, self-evident. It seems increasingly difficult to argue that there is now or ever was such a thing as "European spirituality" in the sense of a single, unified tradition of spiritual thought and practice. Instead, the unfolding history of Christian spirituality in Europe has yielded a multiplicity of distinctive Christian spiritual traditions, each of which has been shaped by a particular place and social-cultural milieu and by the blending and clashing of cultural, political, intellectual influences from within and without (the very question of what counts as European, what constitutes Europe is and has always been contested, contributing to the difficulty in arriving at any clear understanding of the meaning of European spirituality). The radical multiplicity of Christianities that has always been reflected in Christian life in Europe ought to serve as a caution against any generalized attempt defining the shape of European Christian spirituality.

Further challenges arise when one takes into consideration the evolution of Christian life and practice in Europe over time. In the present moment, shifting demographics and secularizing trends have contributed to a reshaping of the European religious landscape. Is it any longer meaningful to describe Europe as broadly Christian—whether in terms of actual practice or in terms of general, cultural orientation? As the number of those who formally profess Christianity continues to shrink, and the presence of other religious communities and of non-religious secular forces continues to grow, how are we to understand the shape and character of contemporary Christian spiritual practice—both on its own terms and as it comes into contact with other traditions of thought and practice? This is a question of such great complexity that even to pose it in this way is to illuminate the immense changes that are currently underway in contemporary Europe. It is in part because of these changes, and because this journal, while international in scope, has always had its primary home in North America, that we decided to take the opportunity to consider what it means to think about Christian spirituality in a European context today.

The essays by Philip Shelrake, Elisabeth Hense, Frans Maas, Lief Gunnar Engedal, Bernadette Flanagan, Luk Bouckart and Andreas Andreopoulos take up a wide range of questions relating to what it means to practice Christian spirituality in a contemporary European context. These reflections, while certainly not representative in any broad sense, do shed light on many of the tensions and ambiguities currently arising amidst an increasingly pluralistic and secular European culture. One can well imagine another half-dozen essays, and another half-dozen after that taking up further and different questions; indeed, it might be best to consider this present symposium on 'Euro-spirituality' simply an initial effort to surface key questions and concerns, to be followed up by further conversation and exchange in the future. For the moment, it is intriguing to consider how the central questions of scholars living in Europe compare those of their counterparts in North America and elsewhere.