Hesperialism

Hesperialism (ancient Greek Ἕσπερος, Latin „Hesperus“: the evening star, in a broader sense the West; see also Hesperides) is a political ideology that allies the defense of fundamentally conservative values and a commitment to the Graeco-Roman and Judeo-Christian identity of Europe with a call for a closer unification of the European states. It is defined as a “patriotic commitment to a unified Europe, relying not merely on universalist, but also conservative values […]; a word derived from the Greek designation for the outer West of the known world and serving as an antonym to the term ‘Europeanism’, generally designating an uncritical support of the present European Union […].” Hence, Hesperialism is distinct from Europeanism by its skepticism concerning universalist European values (see Pan-European identity), which are considered, on the basis of the Böckenförde Dilemma, as potentially relativistic as long as they lack an ultimate anchoring in the transcendence of Western spiritual traditions. Hesperialism is also distinct from Populism because of its fundamentally positive attitude towards European unification, at least as long as the latter guarantees the nation-state a maximum of autonomy and subscribes to the need of defending Western Culture against the main dangers suspected by Hesperialism: Islamization and the economic and political competition of China. The word itself was first used in the context of a reform project of the European Union proposed by a series of European intellectuals gathered by David Engels, and comprising Chantal Delsol, Alvino-Mario Fantini, Birgit Kelle, Zdzisław Krasnodębski, András Lánczi, Max Otte, Jonathan Price, and Justyna Schulz. The manifesto of Hesperialism was published in 2019 in various European languages.

Literature

David Engels (ed.), "Renovatio Europae. For a Hesperialist Renewal of Europe‘‘, Groningen: Blue Tiger Media, 2019. ISBN 978-94-92161-85-7 Search this book on . (see also in German: ‘‘Renovatio Europae. Plädoyer für einen hesperialistischen Neubau Europas‘‘, Lüdinghausen / Berlin: Manuscriptum, 2019, ISBN 978-3-948075-00-2 Search this book on .. Polish: ‘‘Renovatio Europae. O hesperialistyczną reformę Europy’’, Poznań, Instytut Zachodni, 2019, ISBN 978-83-61736-96-7 Search this book on .)

References

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