Religious literacy and the historical evolution of European identity: a Lithuanian path through differences to commonality

Abstract

The article discusses the origins of Europe’s religious and historical literacy, leading through distinctions to a common European identity. The phenomenon of cultural and religious adaptation in European identity is analyzed in the case of Lithuania in the 16th–17th centuries. It is shown that, despite the different genetic, religious, and historical characteristics, Europeans have a peculiar commonality. Historical reflection on the cultural structure of Europe makes it possible to talk about the Greek, Jewish, and Arab worlds in the Latin Civilization of Europe. The libraries of monasteries, which accumulated manuscripts of ancient thinkers, language schools, and translation workshops served the religious-cultural revival. The written culture, cherished by Charlemagne, has become a factor in a new religious-cultural identity. The Protestant and Catholic reforms that came with written culture led to the modernization of culture with a variety of religious discourses and an understanding of national identity. With the modernization of the Catholic Church, the idea of ecclesiastical union was realized with the establishment of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.