“Europe is the faith and the faith is Europe,” observed the English writer Hilaire Belloc almost 100 years ago. Western Civilization makes no sense apart from its Christian origin and identity.
The last 100 years has proven him right. If our civilization makes no sense without Christianity, it cannot survive without Christianity. The post-Christian West is a nihilistic sinkhole. It’s hostile to the faith that birthed it. It gave up the very beliefs — in human dignity and freedom, for two — that made it what it was. It replaced them with “globalism.” (For more on this, see the late James Schall’s explanation of Belloc’s quip.)
But the nationalist-populist movement has just made a shift in strategy that could change that. Nationalists could save globalism from itself — and thereby save Europe. If, that is, they can reestablish its Christian origins....
