The grand experiment that is the European Union has obviously focused on various forms of integration, including the economic, the diplomatic, and the legal. The challenge of achieving integration on these fronts has been difficult, but much has already been accomplished. As the experiment has unfolded and expanded, however, there have increasingly been calls not just for pragmatic integration but also for forms of “identification” with Europe as a trans-national entity – and identification between the peoples of Europe across local, national, and regional boundaries. This has seemingly led to the thought that the pragmatic side of integration needs to be complemented by a intellectual, or even spiritual side, that one of the main functions of Union is to promote a revival of a broad sense of meaning that goes beyond just the pragmatic, in the way that the “Song for the Unification of Europe” binds together highly individualized senses of history, loss, memory, and significance in Kieslowski’s Blue.
Towards the Spiritual Renewal of Europe: India in the Early Thought of the Brothers Schlegel
JVF Conference Papers
