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| Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 19 reviews)
Sales Rank: 109611
Category: Book
Authors: Joseph Ratzinger, Marcello Pera
Publisher: Basic Books
Studio: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Label: Basic Books
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5 x 0.1
ISBN: 0465006272
Dewey Decimal Number: 909.09821
EAN: 9780465006274
ASIN: 0465006272
Publication Date: January 29, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger-now Pope Benedict XVI-joins Marcello Pera, President of the Italian Senate, to offer a provocative critique of the spiritual, cultural, and political crisis afflicting the West. Bringing together their unique vantage points as leaders of Church and State, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Marcello Pera challenge us to imagine what can be the future of a civilization that has abandoned its moral and cultural history. They call on the West to embrace a spiritual rather than political renewal -and to accept the moral values that alone can help us to make sense of changes in technology, economics, and society.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 A refreshing, productive exchange of ideas. July 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Two highly educated and keenly intelligent people discuss crucial issues concerning the future of the Western world and they do it without the usual toxic, truth aborting injection of rigid, mindless ideolgy and its banal talking points. Ratzinger surprises by eschewing the expected cleric's Middle Ages scholastic approach to deliver a powerful, genuinely Christian analysis of the situation that even the most determined secularist would admire. Marcelo Pera is the only likeable secular thinker I have encountered and had the pleasure to study and admire. Pera is a true scholar so confident of his insightful opinions that he has no need to use the woeful tactics of sophistry so frequently employed by the insecure, immature and closed minds so common in the secular world. This record of brilliantly exchanged ideas is a vital read for seekers of truth about the world of today in the West. I yearn for the day when there is a plentiful sufficiency of thinkers like Ratzinger and Pera expressing themselves as they do in this book in the stead of the usual desert of scholarly irrelevancies we must endure.
 Without Roots: Fantastic analysis of the Grey Doom of Relativism that afflicts our society June 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
We discussed this book in our Church discussion group, and it generated a ton of excitement as it nailed the major problems in politics, religion and government today, not to mention daily life. Basically, at least one major party in the U.S., operating out of a religion of relativism, is ready to lay down and let Islamic Fascists take over our country. Mr Perea says there is a similar group of people in Europe who think all war is evil, and is unwilling to defend itself. War is not intrinsically evil anymore than death is. He said there is a moral death (natural) and an immoral death (murder). The same principle applies to war, which can be moral if it is defensive. We enjoyed the book, and plan to read the Sadness of Christ by St. Thomas MoreThe Sadness of Christ (Yale University Press Translation) next as a form of anti-relativism, as St.Thomas More, former Chancellor of England, put his head on a chopping block rather than sign a piece of paper saying King Henry VIII was the head of the Roman Catholic Church of England. Christ in "The Sadness of Christ" evidenced similar courage. IT is More's commentary on the Agony in the Garden Passages from Scripture. More wrote it during the 15 months he was in the Tower of London awaiting execution. Anyway, Without Roots addresses the liberal malaise in Europe today, but guess what the same problem afflicts the U.S. today, although to a lesser degree. God bless you. Susan Fox
Gets to the Root May 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When 2 intellectuals from quite different socio-political and religious points of view come to the same conclusion on an issue of Global impact upon society...their conclusions warrant some REAL attention.
These lectures and letters between Ratzinger (Benedict XV) and Pera, present just such a monumentally cogent piece of work.
Importantly, both these great minds have a way of articualting their positions in straightforward, understandable terms which even the average reader can appreciate. No high sounding philosophical language...but solid philosophical and moral analysis.
If there is any issue that will impact every human being alive over the next few decades...it is the crisis of identity which this little book addresses. Time well spent, indeed.
So There ARE Europeans That Don't Despise Us! August 22, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I didn't know much about Ratzinger before I picked this up so I was suprised to see him giving praise to the United States and not doing things like, you know, calling the fight against anti-Semitism, Islamic psychopaths and Pan-Arab Authoritarianism a "great loss for humanity." I couldn't agree more. The future of the world and the West in particular looks pretty bleak at times in my view. Who's going to do it if not us? We defeated Fascism and Communism by ourselves. Once more we have to swoop to rescue our European friends from the latest threat while they cower in fear.
Why is the United States so willing to fight these battles both figurative and literal while Europeans seem to care less? Ratzinger argues the reason for this is that Americans aren't completely consumed with self-hatred the way Europeans are although we're about halfway there. As he put it, we Americans "aren't afraid to love ourselves."
Important point to make because Europeans like to kid themselves into thinking they hate Americans because of the War in Iraq when in actuality they hate us because we're religous, because of our success, and because they'd all be speaking German or living on communes if it weren't for us. Since those threats have been defeated Europe is starting to reconsider its friendship with America now that the relationship doesn't seem as important as it used to.
This self-love, our religiousity, our belief in ourselves, our belief in liberty for all humanity, our relationship with Israel; all of this gives America a unique position in the world today and should, as Ratzinger argues, bring us to recognize the important role we have in preserving the West and bettering all of humanity.
As the Islamic World continues to invade the West, terrorize the citizens of Europe and ghoulishly obsess about the annihilation of world Jewry the United States is and will be the only one to confront these great problems. If we don't stand up then who knows what will happen to liberty and human rights in another century or two especially with the rise of China. If these problems aren't snuffed out then all of humanity could be facing a darkness that makes relativism look like a Sunday morning walk in the park.
Manifesto against Cultural Relativism August 17, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This short book is definitely worth the price. It can be read in one day and has the usual brilliant analysis of relativism & the decline of Christianity in Europe by Benedict XVI, but what made the book even more special was Marcello Pera's contribution .It was interesting to hear a secular non-Christian view of post-modernism and cultural relativism. Every Christian regardless of denomination and non-Christian interested in preserving an "open society" would benefit from reading this book.
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