The 'European Syntesis'. On metapolitical interpretation of Contemporary History of Joseph Ratzinger

The debate over the identity and future of Europe has thrown up a whole series of weighty discussions and concerns, one of which is worthy of special mention: the supposed trade-off between the strengthening of European identity on the one hand and the preservation of the many national identities on the other. Indeed, Europe has always been both a field of contested identities and a space of universal consilience. What has made this co-existence of plural delineations possible is an identity space constituting the real “soul of Europe”. How can we characterize this identity space? In what follows I will attempt a sort of reductio ad unum of the many different issues at stake with a view to identifying a few basic concepts that ought to inform the public discourse. These concepts will revolve around four key words: the human person; democracy; fraternity, common good.