On the Square Today

In his latest On the Square column , R.R. Reno considers the future of the European Union:

From its beginnings in the early 1950s as a common market of coal and steel, post-war efforts to unify Europe have been based on the presumption that interlocking economic interests would lead to a new and harmonious international system. As Robert Shuman, the French foreign minister who designed this first common market, once observed, the aim was to “make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible.”

In 1979 elections were first held for a European Parliament, an exercise that few took very seriously because it was a body of precious little consequence. But the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 beefed up the authority of the European Parliament, created the European Court of Justice, and most significantly set in motion the process of monetary policy that led to the Euro, which replaced national currencies in 2002.

Also today, Joshua Genig wonders how we should celebrate the Reformation :

One of the strangest things about our current cultural milieu, however, is the way in which denominational tags (which are a direct result of the event we celebrate on October 31) mean so little anymore. Instead, post-moderns are, as N.T. Wright has observed, given primarily to beauty, community, spirituality, and justice. What they want (and need!) is a church that is ancient, mysterious, authentic, merciful, compassionate, beautiful, and, most importantly, one.

And that latter adjective, I would propose, is not helped by wearing red for Reformation.