Without Roots by Joseph Ratzinger and Marcello Pera (Basic Books, 159 pp., $22.00). In a Socratic exchange of letters, the then-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and Italian senate president Marcello Pera propose that Europeans are loitering through history without a compass. Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, notes that secular relativism discourages Europeans from deeming their political traditions to be superior to, say, sharia law. Western traditions of freedom and faith can only be sustained, he suggests, with the help of "creative minorities," who might serve as wardens of the virtues of the West. Think of the Israelites who had a profound impact on the Gentiles around them, or the monks who kept intellectual culture alive in medieval monasteries (prime among them St. Benedict with his famous Rule, which provided practical and spiritual precepts to foster contemplative, communal life). Ratzinger is not clear as to who might fulfill this role, or how they might do it, but the papal name he chose for himself may provide a clue: The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre concluded his 1980 work After Virtue with a call for a new St. Benedict, one to initiate a revamped monasticism that could hold together a coherent conception of civilization in a culture that falls into absurdity by forgetting the values upon which its free, stable society was sustained.
European views of President Bush and the Iraq war expose the continent's self-flagellating spirit. Ratzinger, admitting the limits of his field, says that as a theologian he can offer no insights as to the merits of the war, which is the task of statesmen. But he rejects "a pacifism . . . that assigns the same value to everything." Pera praises Bush's "armed position" over the "angelic relativism" of European intellectuals who believe that the world is on the cusp of perpetual peace and who think that mankind has transcended the realities and burdens of humanity, such as the unfortunate necessity of war.
In the face of this, Christianity needs to worry less about quibbling over details, Ratzinger writes. Instead, it is time to focus on basic questions of civilization, such as the nature of revelation in relation to the modern world. He recognizes that living in this world requires prudence. In a passage that may surprise some who confuse politics with religion, Ratzinger, uncompromising in matters of faith, writes that politics involves "what is doable. . . . Politics is the art of the compromise."
Those "creative minorities" should ask: "How far can the Christian politician push, through compromises, in favor of a law that is morally grounded without entering into contradiction with his or her conscience?" Certainly, this is difficult--and if Aristotle was right, the answer will not embody mathematical precision. But no answer can be achieved if the roots of the debate are not fleshed out, and no answer will be of use to Western civilization without some steadfast statesmen who are willing to take up the responsibility of defending those roots--which may involve resorting to arms. That a pontiff and a leading Italian statesmen would jointly offer such sentiments may be a beneficial, if tardy, step in attacking Europe's sordid flirtation with politically correct platitudes.
--Joseph Lindsley