Charlemagne's European Project-and Rémi Brague's One of the defining features of the modern era is that the most modern individuals are not having enough children to sustain their societies from one generation to the next. . . . Those most immersed in the pleasures and possibilities of modern life seem least driven to raise up a generation to follow in their footsteps. Societies defined by the forward march of progress are failing to bring life forward in the most fundamental sense. Brague acknowledges that modern thought has made considerable contributions to the peaceful and productive coexistence of human beings. But faced with demographic dearths, as well as the challenges to human existence posed by nuclear weapons and ecological catastrophe, such thought has proven much less helpful in addressing the existential questions: Should European societies continue? Should the human adventure continue on the old continent? In short, modern thought is strikingly silent when it comes to the absolutely basic questions. Is it good that humans exist? Is it good to transmit life to those who by definition cannot give their prevenient consent? What reasons can one give for the goodness of existence? It is at this point that the Catholic Socratic makes a countercultural suggestion: late-modern Europeans need to reach across the modern/premodern divide erected by their philosophical forebears and draw from the past. In that way Europe will again be whole, not simply divided, and the best from each phase of its existence can make its contribution to this unique culture. Specifically addressing the existential question, Brague recommends that contemporary Europeans reconsider their earlier forebears' belief and trust in a providential God, who from the beginning looked upon the world and man himself and declared, "they are good, very good in fact." The Catholic Socratic thus modernagejournal.com 89http://www.modernagejournal.com