The Christendom Unification Ideal Of Europe And Its Impacts On European Integration

European integration is a strategic step European states, especially the Western ones, adopt to deal with the economical and political situation after World War II. Its connotation, however, does not confine to those two spheres. European integration is also a social and cultural phenomenon, which must bear characteristics of the traditions. The issue of the multi-level social policies, heated discussion about the identity issue and the nowadays problems rising in the Eastward Enlargement all confirm this. As religion has been playing an important role in the European history, this thesis chooses Christendom unification ideal of Europe as the cut-in point to carry out the research. And the focus is: Christendom unification ideal of Europe provides European people with a common psychological identity and the European history with the first political community idea which becomes the fountainhead of the later European unification thoughts.This thesis adopts a body of four main chapters besides introduction and conclusion to carry out a review of the Christendom unification ideal of Europe in history and an analysis of its impacts on European integration nowadays.Introduction makes clear the research orientation, concerning researching methods, research objective and an overall frame of the whole thesis.Chapter One reviews the Christendom unification ideal of Europe in history. Europe as a whole at the beginning bore an ideal of Christendom, which was expressed in the doctrines of the Bible and became possible through emperors' recognition. As Roman Empire divided itself into two in 395 AD, the Eastern and Western Europe developed their different unification ideals. The Eastern part inherited the tradition of empire, while the Western part tried to build up a Christian...