ABSTRACT
The European Union is not just the political and economic union of European states. It is the “final world empire”, representing the fulfilment of those biblical prophecies which speak about the last days of the world and the coming of the Antichrist (Franklin 2004). This image and vision of the EU, developed mainly by Protestant groups representing Free Churches, is a good testimony to the fact that the Union can be associated perfectly with religion and can even be perceived through religious lenses and discussed in religious terms. Although the principal theories of European integration (neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism and social constructivism) have always been rather silent about the religious factor, such an approach, based on a certain underestimation of religion, seems to be unjustifiable nowadays. It appears that the religious component of the integration process in Europe is not a figment of the imagination. Instead it turns out to be part of everyday reality, coming in diverse and even unexpected formats.
