La presente tesi dottorale si propone di ricostruire la posizione delle principali chiese cristiane europee nei confronti del processo di unificazione in atto. Questo perché a fronte della costruzione politica di una Europa che, come esplicitamente detto nella dichiarazione di Laeken non chiuda gli occhi di fronte alle ingiustizie del mondo , l'intervento del magistero della chiesa cattolica ed in genere delle chiese cristiane non può non essere attento e continuo, tanto più che esse hanno contribuito a trasformare pacificamente i regimi autoritari ed a ripristinare la democrazia nell'Europa orientale, non meno che in quella occidentale. La storia del processo di integrazione europea, dalla metà del secolo scorso ad oggi, è segnata da un travagliato susseguirsi di tappe e di evoluzioni contenutistiche, destinate a sfociare in una quasi totale ridefinizione dei principi originariamente costitutivi. La presente tesi, tra l'altro, ripercorre proprio tali tappe, evidenziando innanzitutto i momenti importanti nel cammino del pieno riconoscimento della libertà religiosa e dello status delle confessioni religiose; ed in secondo luogo il ruolo giocato dalle anzidette confessioni religiose e la risposta, a volte positiva, a volte negativa, alle richieste dalle stesse avanzate alla comunità politica europea. / The purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to identify the position taken by the main European Christian churches in respect of the unification process in progress. The Laeken declaration expressly states that from a political point of view Europe does not turn a blind eye to the world's heartrending injustices . In this respect the intervention of the Catholic church (and of the Christian churches in general) must be constant and careful; this is all the more true since the Christian churches played a significant role in the peaceful transformation of authoritarian regimes into democracies in both Eastern and Western Europe. The history of European integration, since the beginning, has been characterized by a complex series of steps and evolutions leading to a substantial re-drafting of the original principles. This dissertation examines the mentioned steps and evolutions, highlighting the key moments for the full recognition of religious freedom and of the religious confessions status. The dissertation also examines the role played by the religious confessions in the creation of the European Union, giving emphasis to the answers (positive and negative) these confessions received from the European Political Community.

Many around the world have come to know South Africa as the rainbow nation, yet this notion has been subject to enormous critiques in the political discourse. The rainbow nation was conceived by the Government of National Unity that came to power in 1994, but it failed to materialize. What post-apartheid South Africa has yielded instead is a nation, or an imagined community, where race and ethnicity never receded. Although they are no longer pathological, race and ethnicity have become normative typifications of an overarching identity. Churches in particular have played a major role in creating a new identity. Churches have managed to move beyond the yoke of race and ethnicity enforced during the Apartheid under the Group Areas Act and the Resettlement Acts, and epitomized by the destruction of the vibrant city of Sophiatown and, in its place, the building of Triomf, an Afrikaner imagined community. Churches have led the way in deconstructing the perceived or realized power or disempowerment that is residual to the Apartheid. In reconstructing the community, they have re-imagined an environment where race and ethnicity remain the standard component of the South African national identity. This re-imagining requires that race and ethnicity be constructed as relational rather than hierarchical. Moreover, it requires that one acknowledge the woundedness (e.g., shame, anger, guilt, hurt, humiliation, betrayal, fear, resentment) that racial typifications create. As a social construction, Churches in Sophiatown are fostering this ethical environment where these values are embraced.