A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Acăr, Coculiana Article A historical perspective on the link between Romania and Europe, through the dynamics of spiritual values CES Working Papers Provided in Cooperation with: Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Suggested Citation: Acăr, Coculiana (2018) : A historical perspective on the link between Romania and Europe, through the dynamics of spiritual values, CES Working Papers, ISSN 2067-7693, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Centre for European Studies, Iasi, Vol. 10, Iss. 3, pp. 396-405 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/198552 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.econstor.eu CES Working Papers – Volume X, Issue 3 A historical perspective on the link between Romania and Europe, through the dynamics of spiritual values Coculiana ACĂR* Abstract An important lever in establishing and maintaining relationships between Romania and Europe is the presence of spiritual values. The proposed theme identifies and analyses spiritual values in a European context on three temporal coordinates: the 16th - 19th centuries, the interwar period and postmodern period. This topic addresses the cultural specificity of Romania in relation to Europe. Spiritual values shape national identity that has a special role to play in defining a people's culture. The important moments in the synchronization of the Romanian culture with the European one were marked by the Romanian humanists who played a special role in the formation of the historical consciousness that contributed to the evolution of the Romanian people. Subsequently, representatives of modernism promoted Western civilization among the Romanians, favoring the opening, but within certain limits, to the Western culture, in the sense that they preserved the values specific to our people. Keywords: spiritual values, culture, Romania, Europe Introduction Since the issues that concern us and which we are pursuing are related to the role of spiritual values in the performance of the link between Romania and Europe, we proposed an axiological vision of the historical time that defined the relationships between Romania and Europe through the convergence of the three chronological aspects: the 16th - 19th centuries, the interwar period and postmodernism. In support of this goal, we endorse the “axiological vision of history by which we see an axial historical present through the social life it represents, the past through the treasure of inherited values and the future through the prospective values that it inspires them, towards the fulfilment of imperatives in the offing” (Isac and Stănciulescu, 2006, p. 54). To that effect, investigating the meanings given to values, we can distinguish two senses: on the one hand, the term value refers to objects, man’s products, found in expressions such as: * Coculiana ACĂR is PhD Student at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania, Faculty of Social Political Science – Philosophy, e-mail: [email protected]. 396 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License A historical perspective on the link between Romania and Europe, through the dynamics of spiritual values “universal culture values” or “antiquity values”; on the other hand, the value denotes features that characterize man, for example: “moral values” / “spiritual values” (Culda, 1982, p. 185). Starting from the idea that man adhered to values, integrating them as principles of conduct in all actions of life, history imposes human consciousness as an objective “culture to educate mankind!” (Isac and Stănciulescu, 2006, p. 53). So, in the proposed approach we will follow the availability of spiritual values in establishing the collaboration and integration relationships of Romania at European level; that is why “spiritual values, sustained axiologically, become real, objective and operative factors in the life of man and society” (Isac and Stănciulescu, 2006, p. 46). We propose an axiological vision of historical time, in relation to Romania and Europe, an integrative vision that considers past, present and future in an interdependent functional and unitary continuity. A historical component is the knowledge and understanding of the past as indispensable to the construction of the future. The European Union is today the main way of preserving the spiritual values of the member countries. With an obvious cultural identity, Europe is defined both by characteristics common to the cultures of different ethnicities and peoples of the European geographical area, as well as by characteristics specific to them. Romanian culture, like all cultures of the European continent, could develop only in direct contact with the European culture. Concerns about the European idea arise with I.H. Rădulescu, not only at the level of concept, but equally civically and publicly. An example in this respect would be the magazine “Studii filosofice” (1897), the first of its kind in the country; the “Societatea de Studii Filosofice” (1910) is then founded, which later becomes the “Societatea Românească de Filozofie”. Another relevant aspect is the contribution of Romanians to European culture in all fields: art, philosophy, economy, sociopolitical organization. Thus, Romanian intellectuals who took the path of exile after 1965: S. Alexandrescu, M. Călinescu, Virgil Nemoianu, as a result of their perception with the Western cultural environment and the process of redefining their own identity, need to overcome some primary disjunctions, such as: Western / Oriental. The historical or moral condition of the European man also has an unusual dynamics. The second category of characteristics defining European identity is that of the particular traits specific to the other cultures of Europe, due to which there is this diversity that forms one of the main riches of European civilization. Romania occupies a respectable place within the original civilization and culture, no less European, even if on the outskirts of the continent. EU construction begins to turn into practice after the Second World War. The cultural unity will be maintained thanks to the intellectuals who keep the ties and promote common ideas. CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(3) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY 397 Coculiana ACĂR Europe is not isolated, but in full process of globalization, subject to changes that take place quickly. EU is a planetary model, despite the problems it faces. 1. Romania in the 16th - 19th centuries - European type spirituality The synchronization of the Romanian culture with the Western one is considered to start as far as the 16th - 18th centuries marked by four moments: the appearance of the printing press, the writings of the chroniclers Grigore Ureche and Miron Costin and the scholar Dimitrie Cantemir, the literary and historical work of the Transylvanian School of Transylvania and the activity of the young students from Paris during the period preceding the Revolutions of 1848. Hereinafter, we will refer to the role of the Romanian humanists in the formation of Romanian spirituality in European context, also highlighting some outstanding personalities of the 18th - 19th centuries who have contributed to the development of Romanian culture. At European level, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, 1448, promotes the access to culture for a wider audience. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Byzantine scholars take refuge in Italy by saving ancient writings and contributing to their spread in Europe. Romanian humanism manifested later than the European one, more precisely in the 16th - 18th centuries, the 17th century being considered the period of maximum effervescence of this cultural current. Coming from boyar families, Romanian humanist scholars have the opportunity to study in countries such as: Poland, Italy, Constantinople, which facilitates their contact with the European culture of that time. Through the themes approached: the history of the stirps and the Latin origin of the people and of the Romanian language, Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin lay the foundations of Romanian historiography. If we refer to Miron Costin, he can be considered a complex writer for that time being the author of lyrics, translations, and writings in Polish. Through the work “De neamul moldovenilor”, M. Costin “released into circulation