Christian Occident

The Christian Occident indicates at the same time

the geographical area corresponding to the grounds occupied by the people claiming Occident

At the beginning, the idea of Occident is formed in opposition to the Roman Empire of the East, which only remains after the attacks of the cruel Invasions.

the religion which, by the means of the evangelization, endeavors to gather the heart of these people.

In the beginning, Christendom was Latinized on the ground even Roman Emperors Polythéiste S which had trailed the first disciples in the Arène; so much so that the last emperors were Christian. Moreover, the administrative structure (ecclesiastical Province) is copied on that of the Empire. The orthodoxe Schism introduced by reaction the formation of the Catholic church , Apostolic and Roman E; it is this meaning which is retained in the term “Christian Occident” for this article.

This article describes the history of this concept, quite long-lived in the designs of the world of the Papauté, in terms at the same time Géographique S and Géopolitique S.

Origin of the concept

Confronted with adversaries penetrating their sanctuarized geographical area, the barbarians crossing the Files Romans initially, the World arabo-Moslem then, the Pape S will not have of cease to protect their zone from influence against those which they name shovel-mixes the pagan ; they confer the title of Empereur of the Occident on various sovereigns of stature, who found in exchange a sacralization there to be able Séculier to them on polyglot populations, that only the religion could bring closer.

Most known are Charlemagne and Charles Quint; Clovis was not " que" King.

Geostrategic situations

Cruel times with the Carolingians

Gradually, by a return to the Greek language, the Byzantine empire successor of the Roman Empire of the East thus moves away from its origin and follows its own evolution. This will lead to the orthodoxe Schisme.

500 : the first promising kingdom unified for the church vaticane is the kingdom Visigoth. The Visigoths being followers of the Arianisme, of the catholic bishops get busy to convert them with the apostolic and Roman worship. But the kingdom disappears into 711.

the expansion of perceptible Islam of its foundation to Poitiers seizes the Christianity trinitaire, which loses half of the grounds there on which it had been installed like only Monothéisme: this is why the geographies of the Christian Occident and Roman Occident do not coincide. The vision of the triumph of the Faith announced by Saint-Augustin enters in deep crisis of this fact.

800: Papacy tries to restore the concept of empire unified with the Western Empire ,

the sacring of Charlemagne constitutes a change of Obedience for the papacy, which is freed from the emperor of the East
alas, it is again the parcelling out with the Traité of Verdun:

Francie Western;
Lotharingie ;
Germanic ( Francie Eastern ): from this branch Ottonien Saint Germanic Roman Empire will not be born the .

Towards the Occident related to Catholicism

In 924 dies the last titrated emperor of Occident.
the Chrétienté is divided; the Occident is from now on Catholique and the orthodoxe East . Well a long time before, the cord burned between Rome and the Christian churches of the East; Rome coveted in particular the christic Reliques piled up with Constantinople on the Holy Spot at the time of the battles led to the the Middle East at the time of the 4th century.

The Occident of the 11th century, him, is parcelled out politically (many kingdoms and principalities) but is linked by the religion. Latin is the liturgical and cultural language. This unit leaves a will conquérante.
Entre-temps, the appearance of the Islam on the borders of the Occident made it perceive like its Némésis. The popes want to maintain the access to the holy places at all costs, from now on threatened (the pilgrims are held to ransom or killed). This fight is also the occasion to federate the official powers in a war commune.
This will launch the time of the Latin states of the East.
The last part of the Reconquista of Spain on the Moors will be also perceived as from 1212 like a crusade (cruzada) with the support of the Kings Catholiques until the Guerres of Grenade.

A Christian Occident expanding

the gesture of Cross the

the Fourth crusade, diverted, reveals an unavowed goal of Rome concerning its competition of long time with Byzance;
in 1291 falls Saint-Jean-in Acre; the failure of the crusades in Holy Land is charged overall to the absence of sufficient geostrategic considerations on behalf of their instigators. The adversaries met on the way had a better knowledge of the ground and its vicissitudes, in particular the strategic resource of the water points in the desert zones .
the loss of Saint-Jean-in Acre constitutes the end of the period of expansion towards the South. The Popes give up the idea to fight in a way armed against the most recent Monothéisme appeared on the scene of the world: the appearance of the Islam during the Middle Ages in Occident had inspired a unifying temptation to them, while launching the holy war: this adventure is completed, and each sovereign of the kingdoms originating in the crusaders will have to manage, sometimes with difficulty, the return of the knights of the three military orders Holy Land founded; the unit dreamed by papacy is lost.
Of Holy Land return, and the military Ordres are the subject of a repositioning:

the Ordre Teutonique becomes the dominating actor of the Baltic Croisades, directed from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe against hostile people with the Christianisation: it manages to found a State there.
the Temple is the subject of a lawsuit in France and a banishment until its conquered grounds of brave fight in Spain (lawsuit in sorcery of the worship of the Baphomet): it disappears at the time of great disorders.
the orders of Reconquista are attached to the Couronne of Castille: they are put into orbit.

the Great Schism of Occident separates this last between Rome and Avignon.

In Spain, the pilgrims carry out a symbiosis with the knowledge obtained in contact with known as the adversary on this fringe of the Christian Occident; the company of Reconquista finishes successfully: with the discoveries of the crucial Year, the Papauté finds a new mission civilizing, since the surface of the grounds évangélisables explodes literally (the double of the joint extension of the medieval Christian Occident represents and the Monde joined together arabo-Moslem): This mission is entrusted to the Espagnes through the Traité of Tordesillas, which will lead to the world of the Colonies.

Christian Occident in Europe of nationalisms

Rodolphe II of the Holy roman Empire seizes the power in 1552; its application of the Counter-Reformation in the time of disorders of the Wars of religion mark Christian Occident. Empereur of the Romans purely honorary… -->

Italy of the Italian Renaissance was devastated by the wars, this confirms the end of the fusional dream. This time, whole Europe tears: the Vatican joint with alliances of the League S to fight in blood against the Reform.

the colonies of South America were the preamble of an important extension of the Catholic religion.

Slowly, the preeminence of Europe on the world takes the step on the idea of Occident; the consolidation of the Souveraineté of the state S takes precedence over the unit of Christendom; the divine Right impacting a Worship of the personality towards Roy in France, Absolute monarch for his people, completes to detach the spiritual powers of those ensuring the management of the States: also the time from the enlightened Despotisme comes.

the Catholicism, which had resisted all the Hétérodoxie S hitherto, cannot face the exacerbated phenomenon of the Nationalisme S.

Towards laic Europe

The contributions of the French revolution put an end to the Ancien Mode Féodal in the countries of Europe, not without constipation; as a first of the three states, the possessions of the Clergé are directly concerned.

The extension of European hegemony reaches its Apogée during the 19th century; it is accompanied by the evangelic missions of the white Pères to christianize the world.

Burden of the white man.

The migrations related to religious persecutions on the Old continent bring the emergence of a second preamble which is not catholic obedience: it is about the Anglo-Saxon Monde, whose ideological sources are the Anglicanisme and the Puritanisme.

In 1905, the French State applies the Laïcité to the religious field; this abolition of all Religion of State will be followed with various successes through the continent.

With the Décolonisation, the countries imperialists know gradually the Désenchantement world , and are folded up on the questions that the populations of the metropolises pose to them. The artistic movements relay them.

Released from its Temporal capacity by the sudden appearance of the Italian state, the Catholic church carries out a reflection through the Concile Vatican II.

Decline of the concept

Europe from now on is carried by the economy, the universality of its way of thinking is ratified by its expansion with leaving colonialism; its identity does not come any more of fastening to an identity core related to the Christian occident.

Catholicism knew the modernistic Crise. The problems of the Catholic church become contemporary, and is regulated any more neither by the weapons nor by the conquest of the hearts by the means of the missions. Contrary to the former chapters, the evolution of the Christian Occident is not thus any more one question of geostrategic Situation.

In parallel, the human thought was released from the Dogme (designs of Nietzsche on the religions, critical of Kant on the Téléologique making null and void the temporal intentions of the Church, appearance of the Laïcité) and does not have any more a reference to the Théologie.

From now on, the Occident indicates a whole of country or areas which have a common identity: capitalist countries S, of Christian religion and democratic tradition and Liberal E. The Japan bringing in this sphere the exception in religious term, the contemporary Western identity would not thus rest any more on the religion, but on the Human rights, and especially a certain economic level and of life.

The world is multipolar, and gathers by geographical proximities rather than by affinities. The populations of the Western geographical surface are not considered any more under the spectrum of the religion: this puts an end to the association of the two <> terms and <> in the spirit of the peuples.

The Christian Occident cease thus to carry unifying values.
For good? …

Posterity

The historical heritage of this concept was prolonged by the symbol, as from the 19th century; it also continues with a contemporary debate.

Symbol

The symbolic system use of the cross is found in extremely varied reasons; it is not only any more related to the religious idea of Christendom ; in the ideological field, it returns to the Christian Occident as conveyed in the memory collective.

Discusses

The Christian Occident is examined in a contemporary way, and especially through a reinterpretation of its origins. 1700 years after the facts, the epic of Constantin in favor of the advent to the capacity of the Christian church vis-a-vis the pagan temples is the object of a very detailed attention within the framework of several works treating as many retrospective philosophy like European Identité (to see bibliography).

In first authority, presupposed of such an interpretation is an amalgam: that of the grounds of the medieval Christian Occident with the Western Europe, even the very whole Europe.

This examination takes place in connection with the debate concerning the fact of proclaiming, or not, the " racines" Christian women in the European Constitution. The pope Benoît XVI expressed himself, at the time of this ideological debate, by considering that Europe devoted to a true Apostasie of itself when, in their vast majority, Europeans ceased going to the religious office, having relegated the denominational topic on the individual level.

For its part, Michel Onfray, within the framework of the cycle in progress on the against-history of philosophy , examined the contributions of Paul de Tarse and Constantin, one to bring the concept of Universalisme to the Paléochristianisme and the other, according to him, to have supported the introduction of a Religion of State in the Roman Empire of Occident the day before its collapse, and to have precipitated the end of an enlightened pagan humanism which characterized the imperial easy classes, based on the tolerance of the worships Polythéiste S. Michel Onfray calculates the existence of destruction of temples and pagan libraries, the Christians lately arrived at the capacity taking their revenge after 312 to gum the past and the writings of their ideological opponents (Stoicism and epicureanism, in particular).

These allegations are indeed absent from last work of Paul Veyne, which affirms a contrario that the conversion of Constantin related to only itself, and only in the spheres of capacity reserved for the imperial function, certainly very wide: it would have put an end to the worship emperors since his conversion with Christianity made incompatible such a worship to its person, would have made minority but toléré the pagan worships usual of the citizens of the Empire - but of would not have tolerated anything of the destruction of temples or the Autodafé S.
As for the question of the Christian roots of Europe, Paul Veyne concluded his last work while bringing that Europe does not have a root S but, on the contrary, that it is the result of a épigénèse ; just like the advent of Christianity, the remainder.

See too

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