EUROPAWISSENSCHAFTLICHE ERKUNDUNGSGÄNGE IM CHRISTLICHEN EUROPA: DAS LEITBILD DER PILGERSCHAFT UND JOSEPH WEILERS ANSATZ ZWISCHEN RELIGION, RECHT UND POLITIK

For European studies Joseph Weiler's conceptual reflections on the religious semantics of a Christian Europe can open up new perspectives on the European integration process between politics, law and religion. Understanding the integration process depends on the one hand on finding appropriate semantics for describing form of the EU, and on the other hand on identifying the values of the integration process. Weiler's approach of religious semantics and concepts aims to offer both. This article seeks to make a contribution by drawing on the potentials of the concept of pilgrimage. An analogy from ecclesiology will be used to present the issue of the EU's form. The issue of European values will be discussed in the context of the papal patron saints for Europe. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]