Madam, - We would do well to remember that the values to which Owen Sorensen (December 4th) alludes are secular and universal. Rights such as gender equality, free speech and freedom of conscience were frequently opposed by dogmatic religion when they were first proposed, and the philosophers who defended them were always on the fringes of the religious orthodoxy of their day.
Indeed, while Europe does now espouse these values, their survival into the 21st century was contingent and problematic. Medieval Europe burned old women as witches. It regularly persecuted both Jews and Muslims. More recently, Europe produced the Divine Right of Kings, oppressive colonialism (often in the name of Christ), fascism and communism.
While these ideologies are now discredited, that is not due in the main to "Christian" Europe. So if we are to pick out universal human rights as a European heritage, humility demands that we also realise there is much in the European heritage of which we should be considerably less proud.
Hence, while we acknowledge the roots of Europe in "Christendom", the intellectual wellsprings of modern and future Europe should come from secular and humanist values that were often considered heretical and subversive. These values are not exclusively "Western" but are of universal application. The European Union is a novel structure in world history and the mainstream doctrines of Europe's Christian past will not on their own be sufficient for its future. - Yours, etc,
TOBY JOYCE, Navan, Co Meath.
A chara, - Owen Sorensen contends that "Europe was founded on the values of Christian civilization". In fact, much of what we call civilisation in terms of democracy, central government and the founding tenets of Law - was derived from the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Other civilisations at the time, such as the Celts (also pagan), had liberal attitudes toward woman and social structures that provided for the weak and infirm. From this it could be said that secular Europe was founded on an amalgamation of these different cultures and the subsequent assimilation of their core beliefs and principles.
It could also be argued that it when Europe embraced Christianity, ideas of sectarianism and racial superiority became more prolific and were used as justification for crusades, inquisition and slavery.
So it would seem that Christianity became synonymous with European culture in spite of, not because of, our history. - Is mise,
DAVID O SULLIVAN, Reuben Square, Dublin 8.