Research Papers

'Let it [Constitution] be taught in schools, seminaries and in colleges; let it be written in primers, in spelling books and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, enforced in courts of justice. In short, let it become the political religion of the nation.' In his speech on “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions” in 1838, Abraham Lincoln called upon the citizens of the United States to demonstrate a “state of feeling…, (which) shall universally or even very generally, prevail throughout the nation” in defense of freedom. In light of Lincoln’s admonition, What role does political religion theory play in understanding the evolution of a European consciousness from the nationalist thought structures of European states to a transcendental regionalist cognitive map, especially given the continental urge to enlarge the EU in South-East Europe prior to the current economic downturn? What credence can be made for a European constitution modeled after the “incompletely theorized constitution” of the United States, in which the human rights of all are left to be delineated by the changing populace itself and not of one state’s cognitive structure in particular? What would that political religion look like in the ethnic-centric communities of the European Union and beyond in the effort to include the expansion states of South-East Europe? Lastly, what function does political religion serve in changing the European cognitive map to one of a united constituency and what utility does the inclusion of political religion perform in sustaining the European Union and its Constitution? This paper seeks to answer these questions about the application of political religion theory as proposed by Eric Voegelin and other political thought leaders since the climatic World Wars in which their own consciousness as liberated citizens of the world beyond European states was created.