Books

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CRISIS OF CULTURES, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Br Barry Coldrey

Contents - Nov 2009 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Catholics and Orthodox: improving relations - Michael Gilchrist Climate change alarmism: a new 'religion' for Christians? - John Morrissey News: The Church Around the World The work of Courage and EnCourage supported by Melbourne priests - Marie Mason A Christian response to post-abortion trauma - Julie Cook Campion College celebrates its fourth Year of operation - Br Barry Coldrey Schools: How to rebuild Catholic education from the grass-roots - Sr Mary Augustine OP Foundations of Faith: 'O happy fault': the Christian doctrine of original sin - Noel Roberts Holocaust: English nun who saved Jews from the Nazis put forward as saint - AD2000 Report Missionaries: Mary Glowrey (1887-1957): Australian witness to hope in India - Robyn Fahy And Fr Dan Strickland MGL Letters: Global cooling - M.J. Gonzalez Letters: Pius XII vindicated again - Arnold Jago Letters: Women priests - Robert Prinzen-Wood Letters: Dissenting views - John Schmid Books: THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD: Essays Catholic and Contemporary, by John Haldane - Tracey Rowland (reviewer) Books: JESUS AND THE EYEWITNESSES: Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, by Richard Bauckham - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: CHRISTIANITY AND THE CRISIS OF CULTURES, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - Br Barry Coldrey Update: The 2009 Fighting Fund Books: This month's selection from AD Books Reflection: The Feast of All Souls and the Communion of Saints - Fr Dennis Byrnes

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CRISIS OF CULTURES
by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
(Ignatius Press, 2006, 116pp, hardback, $29.90. Available from Freedom Publishing)

This is a short, elegantly produced volume of ten pithy essays based around three major headings, "The Crisis of Cultures", "The Right to Life" and "The Meaning of Belief". There is a scholarly introduction by Marcello Pera.

These essays were written shortly before Cardinal Ratzinger was elected to the Papacy as Pope Benedict XVI.

The principal focus is the crisis of culture evident in contemporary Western Europe where a majority of the European Parliament would vote to exclude all reference to God or the Christian roots of European civilisation from the Preamble to the European Constitution. The Christian roots and foundation of Western civilisation are being replaced by "modern Enlightenment philosophy".

Such philosophies recognise only what can be proven mathematically or scientifically and deny any metaphysical reality. They do not acknowledge God's existence or objective truth and therefore reduce morality to a relative concept, leading to a confused ideology of freedom. What Europe requires, said Cardinal Ratzinger, is spiritual renewal, not a secular denial of its Christian heritage.

The book is not for the general reader for the material is challenging and crafted at a high level of generality. It presumes a reasonable knowledge of philosophy, theology and the public debate in the West on religious and moral issues.

The book should be in religious community and tertiary libraries along with the author's many other works, both as Cardinal Ratzinger and Benedict XVI, in which he explores a wide range of religious and moral issues.

Dr Barry Coldrey is a former teacher in Christian Brothers colleges and is active in youth ministry.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 22 No 10 (November 2009), p. 16