Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures [Hardcover]

Pope Benedict XVI (Author), Marcello Pera (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2006

Written by Joseph Ratzinger shortly before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures looks at the growing conflict of cultures evident in the Western world.

The West faces a deadly contradiction of its own making, he contends. Terrorism is on the rise. Technological advances of the West, employed by people who have cut themselves off from the moral wisdom of the past, threaten to abolish man (as C.S. Lewis put it)—whether through genetic manipulation or physical annihilation.

In short, the West is at war—with itself. Its scientific outlook has brought material progress. The Enlightenment’s appeal to reason has achieved a measure of freedom. But contrary to what many people suppose, both of these accomplishments depend on Judeo-Christian foundations, including the moral worldview that created Western culture.

More than anything else, argues Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, the important contributions of the West are threatened today by an exaggerated scientific outlook and by moral relativism—what Benedict XVI calls "the dictatorship of relativism"—in the name of freedom.

Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures is no mere tirade against the moral decline of the West. Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI challenges the West to return to its roots by finding a place for God in modern culture. He argues that both Christian culture and the Enlightenment formed the West, and that both hold the keys to human life and freedom as well as to domination and destruction.

Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI challenges non-believer and believer alike. "Both parties," he writes, "must reflect on their own selves and be ready to accept correction." He challenges secularized, unbelieving people to open themselves to God as the ground of true rationality and freedom. He calls on believers to "make God credible in this world by means of the enlightened faith they live."

Topics include:

• Reflections on the Cultures in Conflict Today
• The Significance and Limits of Today’s Rationalistic Culture
• The Permanent Significance of the Christian Faith
• Why We Must Not Give Up the Fight
• The Law of the Jungle, the Rule of Law
• We Must Use Our Eyes!
• Faith and Everyday Life
• Can Agnosticism Be a Solution?
• The Natural Knowledge of God
• "Supernatural" Faith and Its Origins

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The subtitle here refers to Ratzinger's new status as Pope Benedict XVI and to the sixth-century saint who helped preserve Christianity via the monastic order he founded after the fall of Rome. By associating the two Benedicts, it also suggests that their eras are alike, that the state of Europe indicated by the failure of the first pan-European constitution (withdrawn in 2005) to acknowledge Europe's Christian heritage is like that of the sixth century. In the first of the three lectures here, Ratzinger lays out the dangers of thoroughgoing official secularism and proposes to those outside the church that, regardless of their beliefs, they assume God exists--a form of Pascal's wager. The second explains why, regardless of secular laws, the church may not stop fighting abortion, euthanasia, and other challenges to the sanctity of each human life. The last expounds on the necessarily contingent and communal nature of faith. Each speech's close argument rewards careful attention and, though immediately addressed to Europe, applies to secular-spiritual clashes throughout the world. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 117 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Pr (February 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586171429
• ISBN-13: 978-1586171421
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #145,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A former publishing executive, John F. Thornton is a literary agent and co-editor of Tongues of Angels, Tongues of Men: A Book of Sermons. He lives in New York City. Susan B. Varenne holds an M.A. from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. She is a New York City teacher and a freelance writer specializing in religion.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Succinct, November 7, 2006

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Essex (Connecticut) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures (Hardcover)

Non-Catholics and those of nominal faith might be more comfortable reading
"Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam"
by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and Marcello Pera first. The analysis is much the same but correctives, in the form of a return to a pan-European shared faith (by Pena--the head of the Italian Senate) and/or individual action (Benedict)will find a wider audience.

Either book is a must read for anyone commenting upon or interested in the current geopolitical scene. At the end of the 19th century, Dostoyevsky in "Notes from the Underground" and Pope Leo XIII in "On Socialism" (Quod Apostolici Muneris) warned where conflicts within Western Civilization were headed. 1917 and the horrors of communist and fascist totalitarianism were not adverted. Pera and Benedict are raising the same warning flags today. Is the problem as critical as they believe? Can a tragedy be averted? No one knows of course. But that there is a problem is irrefutable and these two book should not be ignored.

Recently purchased "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It" by Mark Steyn. Rated it three stars and that was being charitable as Steyn not only provides little hope but the witty prose his newspaper columns are, rightly, admired for is flat and tendentious when spead out over 256 pages.

Benedict and Pera, in contrast, explain why the west is unable to condemn evil and what can be done to ameloriate that failing.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adressing the current situations with a keen and clear understanding, April 14, 2007

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CDS "C" (Boston,MA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures (Hardcover)

In this book Cardinal Ratzinger studies the tension that arises when a split occurs between the state and religion. He tackles modern secularist notions, discusses abortion, and also addresses the notion that if not atheism, then perhaps agnosticism is the best position that man can hope for. The discussion he provides is well thought out and easy to grasp. You may not agree with everything he says, but the beauty and brilliance of the arguments put forth are undeniable.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential read for understanding the crisis that we are in, September 12, 2006

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Dr. Bojan Tunguz (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures (Hardcover)

Pope Benedict has been a keen and precise critic of the cultural clashes that have been shaking the West over the last half a century. He doesn't kowtow to the latest politically correct fad, nor does he mince words to state the truth. In this book he clearly outlines the what the greatest threats are to the Christian culture and the civilization which is based upon it. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand better the position of the Catholic Church in the ongoing global culture wars.