David Rusin,
In your excellent article, you ask,
“Will Europe ultimately choose to preserve the foundational values of classical liberalism forged during its Renaissance and Enlightenment?” The irony of your question, is that the mindless decadence, moral cowardice, and fawning dhimmitude evident in so many European intelligensia, is really due to their rejection of the very same element glaringly absent in your question. It was the Reformation and the rediscovery of Christian principles that truly led to what we know as “classical liberalism.” The Enlightenment without the leavening effect of Christianity only gave Europe the Terror, the Triumverate, and Napoleon. The 21st century West’s wistful desire to eat the fruit while severing off the root, to have their cake and eat it too, will only result in more Mohammed Bouyeris sneering with utter contempt at our utter lostness, and with bloody knives and suicide jackets, challenging a decadent culture that is barely surviving by feeding off the bare remains of past generations’ moral, political and spiritual capital.
