Faith and the Future (Book Review)



Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Faith and the Future, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-58617-219-0, cost not mentioned, pp. 118

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, is recognized as one of the brightest minds of the Church. Before his rise to the Papacy, he had written a number of books on theology and spirituality. This book is a collection of five radio addresses made by the Cardinal during the years 1969-1970. Since all five addresses centre around the theme of faith they have been edited and presented in the form of a book. The theme is pertinent till the present day and Pope Benedict surprisingly shows great foresight in his assessment and prediction of ‘faith and the future’.
 
Some of the questions addressed in this book are: What is faith? What does it have to do with knowledge, modern philosophical trends, technology, and our modern world? What is faith’s relationship to truth? What consequences do the answers to these questions have for the future of our world and the Church? The language is not hard to follow although the build up of ideas is. Pope Benedict is a well-read man and so is able to integrate various strands of thought into his exposition. The five chapters are crisp.  My personal favourite is the final chapter wherein he dwells on the future without being presumptuous or naïve. His analysis is beautiful and the observations he makes are pretty realistic, considering the times, while indicating concrete steps to be undertaken which the church has been taking particularly in the last few years.    




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