A STUDY OF CATHOLICISM AS AN INTEGRATING IDEA OF EUROPE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 20TH CENTURY ENGLAND

目前，欧洲联盟在社会科学领域，特别是政治学家和经济学家中受到了广泛的讨论。但一个相对鲜为人知的事实是，在两次世界大战之间的几年里，有人坚持认为天主教将作为一种迅速瓦解欧洲的综合思想。无论如何，这都不是教会宣扬其信息的有利时机，因为这无疑是两种极权主义，即，法西斯主义和共产主义，使欧洲人民的头脑充满了梦想和希望。本研究以同情的态度探讨希莱尔·贝洛克、G·K·切斯特顿、克里斯托弗·道森和T·S·艾略特的社会观。它旨在阐明他们似乎共有的核心原则，以防止欧洲分崩离析，并恢复其统一。这些作家代表的是以新教国家为荣的英国天主教知识分子，他们首先要英勇地与根深蒂固的天主教偏见作斗争。他们都对宗教改革有一个共同的理解，那就是它把英国从欧洲分割开来，而欧洲是一个基督教世界。对他们来说，这基本上是一场悲剧。他们把世俗化的主要原因归咎于新教，新教也被认为是欧洲解体的原因。面对基督教或新异教的选择，他们试图说服人们有必要回忆起基本上是中世纪的基督教世界观念的价值，这种观念在世纪仍然有效。很明显，他们的共同想法来自天主教对教会的理解，即教会是神圣的，其性质是公共的，并作为基督的圣事机构使人成圣。

At present the European Union is much-discussed in the social sciences, esp. by political scientists and economists. But it is a relatively little known fact that there were, in the years between the two world wars, people who maintained that Catholicism would work as a synthesizing idea of rapidly disintegrating Europe. It was not a favorable time by any means for the Church to propound its message, for it was undoubtedly two totalitarianisms, i.e., fascism and communism, that filled the minds of European peoples with dream and hpe. Moreover, the church itself was being attacked by secularization among its members.The present research investigated with sympathy the social views of Hilaire Belloc, G.K.Chesterton, Christopher Dawson and T.S.Eliot. It aimed at elucidating the core principle which they seemed to share, to prevent Europe from falling apart, and to restore its unity. These authors represented the Catholic intellectuals in England, which has taken pride in being a Protestant country.So they first had to fight heroically the inveterate prejudices against Catholicism. They all had a common understanding of the Reformation, that it severed off England from Europe which was one Christendom. For them it was basically a tragic event. They attributed the main cause of secularization to Protestantism, which is also held to be responsible for the disintegration of Europe. Facing an alternative of Christianity or new paganism, they tried to convince people of the necessity of recalling the value of the essentially medieval idea of Christendom that still holds for the 20th century. It has become evident that their common idea derives from the Catholic understanding of the Church that it is divinely founded and communal in its nature, and works as a sacramental body of Christ to sanctify people.