Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures
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that their eras are alike, that the state of Europe indicated by the failure of the first pan-European constitution (withdrawn in 2005) to acknowledge Europe's Christian heritage is like that of the sixth century.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 OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved