Pope Benedict XVI: Joseph Ratzinger on Politics

Abstract

Modern Western civilization, shaped not least by the Enlightenment, is the ever present background to Ratzinger's project. (1) It is both a stimulus and a partner in dialogue, a source of inspiration and an object of critique. Ratzinger is acutely aware of any change of mood in the world around him and so is capable of assessing the slightest blip in that mood, thanks to what one might call his finely tuned theological seismograph. He is sensitive above all to the cultural changes caused by the shifting of those philosophical and tectonic plates under the surface of day-to-day politics, which invariably lead to earthquakes. This sensitivity is what gave his opening lectures on the university at the beginning of each semester an excitement and a popularity, which attracted the most diverse of students. It is these underlying cultural tectonic plates that grab his attention as a theologian. One of these tectonic plates is the living Christian tradition; another could be given the collective name of the Enlightenment and its aftermath. The influence of the Enlightenment is, in his estimation, both positive and negative. The modern world born of the Enlightenment is both the product of Western Christian civilization and at the same time has become the greatest threat not only to Christianity but to humanity itself. To distinguish the positive contribution of the Enlightenment project from its life-threatening errors (and so to save what is best in the Enlightenment tradition, such as liberal democracy) is one of the primary tasks he set himself in his reflection on politics. It is the main thrust of his contribution to the debate in Munich, January 2004, with Jurgen Habermas, one of Europe's main spokesmen for the Enlightenment today. (2) Ratzinger's Political Science What I want to sketch very briefly are some features of Ratzinger's political science, as it were, or, more precisely, his understanding of life. Foundational for Ratzinger's theology of politics (3) is the distinction between the sphere of faith and that of politics first expressed in the apodictic statement: Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's (Mt 22:21). This, the true Christian revolution, amounted, in effect, to the liberation of politics from the sacral sphere, thus for the first time in history opening politics up to the sphere of human judgement and decision, the sphere of practical reason, personal responsibility--and so of ethics. (4) It implies the separation of state and Church, the former a community of necessity (we are born into it) characterized by compromise, the latter a community of freedom or conviction (we are baptised into it), one characterized by non-negotiable principles. It also defines the limits set to authority: that authority does not extend into the most intimate, personal sphere, that of worship, faith, and morals. Political life is, rather, defined by justice in temporal affairs. In its turn, freedom of worship can be seen as the basis of all human rights and the ultimate barrier to totalitarianism. According to Ratzinger, this was essentially the unique contribution of the martyrs to the progress of civilization. As a religion of the persecuted, and as a universal religion that was wider than any one state or people, it [Christianity] denied the government the right to consider religion as part of the order of the state, thus stating the principle of the liberty of faith. (5) This he maintains was the soil out of which, in the course of history, the Enlightenment sprang. (6) The Enlightenment was born in places where Christianity, contrary to its own nature, had unfortunately become mere tradition and the religion of the state. It is to the credit of the Enlightenment, Ratzinger adds, that it drew attention afresh to basic Christian values and gave reason back its own voice. (7) One of its products is modern, liberal democracy. …