Essay One: The Crisis of Culture
Chapter Three: Permanent Significance of the Christian Faith
Cardinal Ratzinger began this look on Christianity and Culture with the question of Rationalism. This crux of the crisis of culture lies in whether or not man can acknowledge and search the truth. In that line, he first examined the moral norms of our society. Then on a the heels of highlighting how our culture's advances in science and technology are not growing in tandem with its morality, he examines whether rationalism is a universally valid and logical mind-set. As the views and philosophy of rationalism is strictly anti-metaphysical, rather it doesn't affirm the dignity of man.
In this chapter, Ratzinger examines Christianity as an intelligent religion, or a religion of logos (logic.) The philosophy of the enlightenment cleared the road toward higher truth. It reignited an appreciation for the good, true and beautiful. The roots of the enlightenment were searching for God, which is why in his treatise on the rationalistic world-view Ratzinger encourages it to return to its roots. In religion the search for the true, good and beautiful leads you to God as the ultimate source. Therefore, the gaze of the Christian brings harmony to the philosophies of the enlightenment.
God is the ultimate answer to the definition of man. As created in the image of God they are equal in dignity, regardless of their place in the social order. The bridge between Christianity and rationalism is openness to self-reflection. Self-reflection gives a person a readiness to accept correction, and continue to grow. This in turn allows him to return to the source, the Creator, from whom every real thing comes.
The question the world is asking is whether the world comes from a rational source or an irrational source. If the world comes from an irrational source then reason is merely a a bi-product of the world's development. In that lame line, if the world comes from an irrational source, then its reason would itself be irrational. However if the world comes from reason, then the world's end is reason, as it returns to the source. As such reason that proceeds from reason is open to all that is truly rational.
The enlightenment set out to define morality as if God did not exist, trying to keep it essentials in order to guarantee the basis of life in society. In the beginning, this worked as society already had fundamental Christian convictions. Immanuel Kant, a philosopher of the late 1700's, put God outside of reason. He saw no coherent possibility of acting in light of morality, for what are morals without God? Any way you look at it, shaping human affairs without God leads to the annihilation of man. Even if man doesn't find the path to God's existence, he ought to live as if God existed. This doesn't limit freedom, rather it supports all our human affairs.
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