Deeply Rooted
The largely unknown story of the spiritual father of the European Union, Robert Schuman, who envisioned ‘ a community of peoples deeply rooted in Christian values’. His years of imprisonment during the war, followed by escape and going underground gave Schuman much time to reflect on the kind of Europe that would make war unthinkable, a quest that was recently rewarded by the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU.
About the author
Jeff Fountain is the initiator of the Schuman Centre, and after over 40 years living in the Dutch countryside moved in December 2017 to Amsterdam. Jeff was YWAM Europe director for 20 years, 1990-2009. Jeff chaired the annual Hope for Europe Round Table until 2015. Jeff is author of Living as People of Hope, Deeply Rooted and other titles, and also writes weekly word, a weekly column on issues relating to Europe.
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Good of you to provide this source of debate to the public. A discussion is needed about the real roots of the European Community. What did Schuman mean about a supranational Community? What was Schuman’s definition and how did he develop European democracy? Why was he so sure that it would provide the peace for Europeans that they had not known in over two thousand years? It is also important to distinguish between what is being done today and if or how it comforms to the original moral and Christian ideas. The moral renewal undertaken by MRA and others involving a large proportion of European leaders was an essential basis of the Community system. Lack of morality has too often characterised some of the decisions taken in the periods of stagnation as well as in recent treaties. Schuman was a lifelong student of the Christian basis of European democracy as can be seen from chapter 3 of Pour l’Europe (http://www.schuman.info/democracy.htm ). Monnet’s contribution has too often been exaggerated or totally distorted — see the series on the same site monnet1.htm to monnet6.htm . Schuman wrote that moral principles avoiding any opportunism obligate us in every situation. It needs constant vigil to verify facts, precautions and dangerous sophisms.
Great to connect and learn of your work on Schuman. The discussion you call for is he reason for the annual State of Europe Forum we initiated this year in Budapest on May 9, to be held each year in the capital of the country holding the presidency of the EU: Copenhagen in 2012, Dublin in 2013, … The aim of the forum is to address the questions you raise: What were the real roots of the EU? What role did Christian values play in shaping this initiative? How do we evaluate our current situation in the light of these values? How do we return to these values and ethical foundations?
Watch this site for more details about next year’s forum in Copenhagen, when we plan a full day from noon to noon, May9&10. Video recordings of the 2011 State of Europe Forum are available on http://www.hopetalks.eu
Hello Jeff, I viewed your videos and found them interesting and worthy of a number of positive comments but I won’t list them here. There are also a number of comments on your book, (including some factual errors) we could discuss some time, if you are in Brussels. Some further material on the Christian basis of Europe and the lack of appreciation of it by the leaders today can be found on the commentary site
http://democracy.blogactiv.eu/2011/05/10/research1-fp8-is-the-eu-too-proud-too-atheistic-to-scientifically-investigate-its-origin-and-europes-future/ and also on the schuman.info site. Best wishes David Price, Schuman Project.