Christianity At Sunset
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Book Overview
This book investigates the claims of a "post-Christian era" and the factors
that are leading Christianity to a sunset. It digs into the theological writings
of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) and Stanly Hauerwas, finds their
meeting points and where the two diff er, and remedies they offer to combat
the crisis. These two great theologians seem to envision a dying Christianity
with its greatest enemy as Relativism. Joseph Ratzinger rates relativism as the
greatest challenge of the church today. In a like manner, Stanly Hauerwas fights
the same battle on the Protestant side. This book therefore seeks to argue out
the best response to relativism that affects both the Western Church as well as
the global church, the Catholic Church as well as the Protestant Community.
Relativism in imposing itself as the new world culture, depicting all other
cultures and perceptions as inferior and obsolete. Ratzinger christened this the
'Dictatorship of Relativism, ' while Hauerwas calls it 'Policing of Christian
Values.' While Ratzinger's greatest worry is relativism's denial of Truth extra
ekklesia, Hauerwas' claim is that relativism is not a force from without (of
the Church), but rather, part and parcel of the peoples' modern ways of life,
in which Christian values are persecuted in the name of peaceful existence.
Both perspectives point at a crisis of cultures where the past is canceled out
and the future disconnected from the present, which trend inevitably leads
to disintegration - a leap into the dark. While the pre-Modern world sought
God, and the Modern world sought knowledge, the Contemporary world
seeks relativism. However, all is not lost. The truth can still be found through
the word of God and the Christian culture.
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