of Ratzinger’s solicitous yet firm defense of the divinity of Christ in his book Jesus of Nazareth by secularists. The Economist article on Raztinger and his book was titled An Author and his Subject and went on to make the point (ever so politely) that strong doctrinal convictions might not contribute to interreligious harmony. This nicely illustrated the fact that they really did not realize that for Ratzinger, God is The Author and the pope is but His subject and that the pope’s opinion on any matter can still be summarised in the timeworn joke: Is the pope Catholic? The starkest instance of the confusion about this man to date surrounds the address delivered at the University of Regensberg about a year and a half ago. The address at Regensburg was a vigorous defense of faith and of reason. Reason here is understood as man’s capacity to seek and find the truth. Concerning faith Ratzinger stressed the fundamental right of all persons to freely exercise religion and that coercive religion has no place in our world. Christianity by its nature is not coercive because it must respect the inviolability of every man’s conscience and thus the truth claims of the faith can only be proposed and not imposed, as John Paul once explained it. Showing that he would not be held back by a “prudent” or soft ecumenism, Ratzinger pointed out that this is a discussion that needs to take place within Islam, a point he highlighted again by personally baptizing a convert from Islam this Easter in Rome. Yet the central theme of the speech was the need for the rehabilitation of reason. Ratzinger is unimpressed by the scientism and empiricism that limits the concept of truth to the realm of what is scientifically verifiable. Such an approach reduces the human sciences, such as philosophy, anthropology and history, and forces them to “conform themselves to this canon of scientificity” and of course excludes the question of God. The idea of goodness and ethics becomes hollow since “the subjective ‘conscience’ becomes the sole arbiter of what is ethical.” This widespread phenomenon can be seen in the reluctance of college students to condemn the evil in some acts performed in other cultures, such as human sacrifice or ethnic cleansing. “Who am I to judge? There is no universal moral law,” goes the tired old refrain. And the weakening of our fidelity to Truth and Goodness means that the third transcendental, Beauty, is also lost since there is no standard by which to gauge it. So many jokes about modern art exist simply because too much of modern art is a joke. Art now contents itself with exciting pleasure where once it inspired joy;
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no longer does it attempt to raise the spirit of man but rather appeals to his base desires in the name of realism. Without a sense of transcendent values then beauty is abandoned for the sake of utility and shock-value. Even within some spheres of Christianity itself, mystery has been abandoned for “accessibility”. Ratzinger is grieved by this loss of the sense of beauty because for him Christianity’s truth is encountered best not in abstract argumentation but in the beauty of the person of Jesus Christ. As John Henry Newman said, “It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.” In an earlier discourse Ratzinger explains that the beauty of faith can only be found in “the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb” in whom and in which the person of Christ is interpreted faithfully. Without truth and beauty the world becomes “the first circle of hell”. In short, Regensburg was an appeal for the elevation of both faith and reason in a bid to recall Europe and the West from the edge of nihilism. And in this respect Ratzinger stands quite alone, Athanasius contra mundum. The other inspiration for this article is the visit of Joseph Ratzinger to the United States in mid-April. Predictably there were no shortage of supposed experts and interpreters offering their opinions of what the real significance of the trip was to be, and its lasting significance. I would like to invite you, instead, to forget about the commentators and judge the man yourself on the grounds of his words. Listen with your own ears, read with your own eyes. Can any good come of it? Come and see. Kevin Kambo is Editor-in-Chief of Vox Clara. Citations: Joseph Ratzinger, What It Means to be a Christian. San Franciso: Ignatius Press, 1965, 2006. ___, Vittorio Messori, The Ratzinger Report. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1985. ___, Inaugural Homily. Rome, 24 April 2005. ___, Faith, Reason and the University. Regensburg, 12 September 2006. ___, Wednesday catechesis. Romet, 9 January 2008. ___, Wednesday catechesis. Rome, 16 January 2008. Clive S. Lewis, Introduction to translation of De Incarnatione by a religious of C.S.M.V., London, 1944. Photo: Mark Garten
Vox Clara, Vol 1, Issue 1