Ratzinger, Joseph, Western Culture Today and Tomorrow - Addressing Fundamental Issues, Part II - 'Politics and Morality', Chapter 2: 'That which Holds the World Together: The Prepolitical Foundations of the Free State'. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2019.
Dialog held in January 2004, organised by the Catholic Academy of Bavaria which promotes discussion on topics around church, doctrine, politics, society and culture in Germany.
‘Parallel lives’. Ratzinger and Habermas, respectively, born 1927, 1929; doctorate 1953, 1954; both involved in the upheavals of the late sixties against tradition, in Tübingen from 1966, in Frankfurt Am Main from 1964; Prefect of the Congregation for the Faith in Rome since 1981, final professorial chair in philosophy in Frankfurt since 1983. Both rose to public international attention, one as an emblem of the Catholic faith and its perspective of the world, the other as a personification of liberal, individual, secular thinking.
Both thinkers had made contributions engaging secularist and religious fora respectively, ‘the other side’ to promote dialogue.
Dialogue on ‘Pre-political moral foundations of a free state’, this is, the basis of a society worthy of men, the assumptions holding together any polity.
Both thinkers would go on to continue this dialogue. Examples would be the publication in the late 2000s of the books ‘Without Roots - Europe, Relativism, Christianity, Islam’ arising from discussions between Italian agnostic philosopher and politician Marcello Pera and Ratzinger, and ‘An Awareness of What is Missing’, arisen from a debate between Habermas and academics from the Jesuit School of Philosophy in Munich.
In his intervention, Habermas proposed, among other things, that ‘cultural and societal secularisation is a process that compels both the traditions of the Enlightenment and the religious doctrines to reflect on their own respective limits’, and that in ‘postsecular societies’, the ‘liberal state must require its citizens―both believers and unbelievers―’ certain ‘cognitive attitudes and normative expectations’ to use ‘in their dealings with each other’.
The chapter we read is Ratzinger’s intervention.
He calls attention to three contemporary developments:
[1] The formation of a global community with ‘intersecting existential spheres’―different worldviews in contact and sometimes conflict with each other.
[2] New forms of power, especially those connected with science and technology, difficult to control or at least tame even by national governments.
[3] Ethical certainties that sustained distinct cultural human areas in the pre-global eras are eroding or have largely disintegrated. This makes it more difficult to address the problems posed by [2].
[1] The ‘Power and Law’ section of this chapter searches for objective ethical foundations that can subject power to law and not the other way around as demanded in a democracy.
The common wisdom is that democratic laws are legitimate because they have been formed by majority. But there are cases in which even the majority can err (eg Nazi laws against the Jews).
It would seem that there are limits so that certain things are always unjust and certain other things are always right, ‘antecedent to every majority decision’.
The problem is that this ‘moral ground’ assumed by societies and polities when they make their laws, these ‘pre-political foundations of the state’ is not evident in the same way for all (secularists, Christians, Muslims, Chinese...). ‘Human rights’ are a Western approximation with universal pretences.
[2] The ‘New Forms of Power and New Questions’ section searches for ways in which scientific and technological harmful advancements or religion-based terrorism can be controlled. There has to be a check on these powers to avoid their destructive consequences. It looks as if both, ‘reason and religion’ can benefit from each other to moderate themselves.
[3] The third section, ‘Presuppositions of the Law’ gives a glimpse of previous notions of this ‘pre-political’ moral ground dating back to the Greeks and their idea of a law that derived from the very being of human beings, a law ‘natural’ to them in the sense of being intrinsic to them.
During the Middle-Ages the identification of that ‘moral ground’ with those of Christianity was uncontested. However with the Discovery of America the fact that there was a whole world of people who were not Christian led to elaboration of a ‘law of the peoples’―precursor of what became ‘human rights’ elaborated by Dominican scholar Francisco de Vitoria at the University of Salamanca in Spain.
With the advent of the conflicts and even wars between Christians that the Reformation brought about, the need for ‘common ground’ shifted to certain principles that all Christian could accept (Grotius, Pufendorf).
For Catholics today, there still exists a natural moral law (CCC 1954ss) that is ‘natural’ both in the sense that it pertains to man’s rationality (man is rational ‘by nature’) and also as different from ‘divine law’.
[3] The fourth and last section of this chapter, ‘The Intercultural Dimension and its Consequences’ is part of that third development mentioned in the opening paragraphs of the chapters, the erosion of ethical certainties and the need to find that common ‘moral ground’ in a global and intercultural sphere.
Ratzinger believes that the West, which possesses a de facto influence in the global community, can offer a common ground based on its cultural traditions encompassing Christian faith and enlightened rationality.
In the new contemporary context, however, the formation of the common ground has to pass through an intercultural dialogue, this is the content of section five, ‘Conclusion’.
Following are resources mentioned during this session, which can help those interested in exploring the topics treated in this chapter further.
Holy Bible. Among other passages: Romans 1 and 2, especially 1:19-20 and 2:14-15.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, particularly Part III, Chapter 3, Article 1, 'The Moral Law', paragraphs 1950-1974.
Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, Chapter 2, Section I, 'Freedom and Law', paragraphs 35-53.
Ratzinger, Joseph, and Jürgen Habermas. Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion. Edited by Florian Schuller. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006.
Jiménez Lobeira, Pablo Cristóbal (2011). Liberal Democracy: Culture Free? The Habermas-Ratzinger Debate and its Implications for Europe. Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies 2 (2 & 1):44-57.