A Ratzinger Prophecy on the Cusp of Fulfillment

During the course of the past few months, a relatively obscure book written in 1970 by then-father Joseph Ratzinger has garnered interest from major news outlets.  In Faith and the Future, Fr. Ratzinger speculated about what the Church might look like in the twenty-first century.  Given the current state of ecclesiastical and global affairs, and the prescience of the future pope’s predictions, it is little wonder that his fifty-year-old prognostication is of such interest.

Prophetic Message

Faith and the Future resulted from a series of radio speeches that Fr. Ratzinger made in 1969.  He had been one of the chief architects of several of Vatican II documents and a leading voice in the Church for change.  But by 1969, Fr. Ratzinger was increasingly concerned about the breakdown of society, the seeming loss of a general sense of meaning or value, and the advance of Marxist ideology.

In his book, the pope emeritus posited that the faithful of the twenty-first century would be fewer in number, would have lost their cultural hegemony, and would face considerable hardship.  But it was not at all a bleak future that Fr. Ratzinger saw.  Rather, he envisioned a Church that was smaller but deeper, chastened but stronger, and ultimately more faithful, more mature, and better positioned to change the world that would increasingly need its message of hope.

By comparison, the travails of 1969 look quaint when considered in the light of the upheavals and unrest in the world of 2022.  But many of the issues that Fr. Ratzinger unflinchingly and honestly confronted fifty years ago remain the same today; and his unsparing approach to them, if applied again, could lead to fresh insights and perhaps an even more hopeful outlook for the Church.

Faith is Indispensable

In making his case for the indispensability of the Christian faith in the modern age, one of the pope emeritus’ most compelling arguments begins with his examination of the Bible in the cold light of current scholarship and modern scientific discovery.  Ratzinger plainly states the undeniable fact that the Bible is a very human work.  He readily admits that many books of the Old Testament bear more of a mark of the ancient Near East with respect to the local culture and ethics than to a transcendent understanding of God.  He is no less unsparing in his read of much of the New Testament, pointing to the influence of contemporaneous Greek philosophy that colors its message.

But for Ratzinger, this critical reading of the Bible does not indicate that God is a human invention. Rather, it points to the limits of humanity’s ability to comprehend its Creator.  The anthropomorphism that Ratzinger identifies throughout the Scriptures is but one example of the way in which ancient societies needed to see God in their own image.  The Divine could only be understood in human terms and thus is described in most of the books of the Bible as such. Ratzinger’s point is that God does not change over time, rather humanity’s ability to better understand its Maker grows and matures.

Ratzinger takes this point a step further in light of what scientific discovery has gradually revealed, particularly about the almost incomprehensible nature of the universe.  Humanity’s ever expanding knowledge of creation by no means disproves the Christian God for Ratzinger, but instead reveals how incredible are His works and being.

Understanding God

The pope emeritus effectively makes the point that as humanity matures and its knowledge grows, so does its ability to understand God.  Without writing the words, Ratzinger makes clear the immaturity of the notion of God as an old man in a white robe.  Rather, he argues that science ought to remind the believer that God is outside of space and time and help the faithful to grasp more fully the incredible majesty of God’s true nature.

Yet in stretching the collective Christian comprehension of God, Ratzinger confirms so much of the Bible, particularly what the books of Daniel and Revelation allow humanity to glimpse about its Creator.  His view of humanity’s increasing ability to know God also comports well with Christ’s words that, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now,” which indicate that greater understanding and knowledge will be given in the future.

While not flinching in the face of the evidence that much of what is found in Scripture is of human origin, the pope emeritus fully confirms the divine inspiration of our biblically-based Christian faith and yet shows it to be a living and growing creed that is forever capable of encompassing the expanding limits of human understanding and knowledge.

Revelation vs Secularization

But while Ratzinger makes clear the incredible and transcendent nature of God that humanity is slowly but increasingly able to grasp, he also emphasizes the gentleness of the Christian deity and His infinite patience for and love of His creation.  According to the pope emeritus, this loving God allows for doubt, which is very much a part of the Christian walk and figures prominently in certain chapters of Faith and the Future.  But ultimately, in Ratzinger’s eyes, the Christian faith, is not one of rules but of relationship, in the most Catholic sense, and a journey toward eternity.

The importance of this relational faith becomes extremely evident in Ratzinger’s predictions for the future Church.  As a point of reference to divine this future, Ratzinger looks to the late Enlightenment period in Europe and the subsequent Victorian age.   For him, the growing disdain for Christianity that marked the eighteenth century and the efforts by certain churchmen and women to make the faith more compatible with the ethos of the age, looked rather similar to the general condition in 1969.  The loss of zeal and vigor in the Church in Europe in the late eighteenth century also felt familiar to Ratzinger.

In both ages, it seemed as if secularization was ascendant and unstoppable and that a fatigued and complacent Church was largely unable to halt the onslaught.  Yet Ratzinger makes the point that the very lack of transcendence that is at the heart of secularization sows the seeds of its own undoing.

Relational Faith vs Skepticism

He also points to the relational faith of a few of the faithful that became the catalyst for change. For Ratzinger, the renewed vigor within Christianity during the nineteenth century came from the inability of Enlightenment rationalism to imbue life with meaning and eternity as well as from the saints of the age who showed a better way.

The Church of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had to grapple with the reality of the scientific revolution which was as shattering to the common conception of reality and the nature of existence as are the discoveries and advances of today. In the face of such disruptive knowledge, and a seemingly irrational and immoral Church, many of the Enlightenment philosophers dismissed the biblical God.  In much the same way, the contemporary Church is forced to confront its failings and the skepticism of today’s modern scientific/technological revolution.

The disdainful shadow of Schopenhauer still falls on the Church, he says, and the unreconciled horrors of the twentieth century call into doubt the very notion of a deity.  The situation appears much more drastic in the twenty-first than in the eighteenth century in that there is no cult of reason on offer as a way to find meaning or for the betterment of humanity. The current thin gruel of contemporary culture offers nothing by comparison.

But far more problematic has been the despair of many of the best and brightest philosophical minds of the past century. For example, Albert Camus’ position that suicide is preferable to the meaningless of modern existence without any sense of direction or God is a far more bleak assessment of the human condition than anything espoused in the eighteenth century.  Finally, the dislocation and isolation caused by the relative collapse of human interaction that has resulted from the general addiction to social media is likely unrivaled in history.

The Weakness of Organized Religion

Under such conditions, it is little wonder that the rates of religious affiliation and belief are collapsing, especially among younger generations.  As atheism, or a soppy spiritualism, becomes ever more acceptable, there is less and less social pressure toward religious observance. Many uncommitted Christians have simply fallen away.  At the same time, a Church that appears to society to be hypocritical, obsessed with earthly power, and one that has lost much of its suasion, does not seem to offer a credible alternative to a failing culture.

Yet a residue of Christian influence on society remains and provides the Church with just enough cover that it can continue to hobble along.  By this measure, it has not yet reached the point of inflection, or rejuvenation, that Ratzinger predicted. Perhaps more decay is needed to provide the fertile soil for new seeds of faith to germinate.

The pope emeritus hints at a society that is much less tolerant of Christianity, or the failings of its adherents, and in which the remaining members must seemingly ask themselves what they truly believe and what matters. Under increasing scrutiny, it is no longer tenable to be Christian in name only. Society seemingly holds the Christian to account with respect to the conviction of his or her beliefs. But it is in this crucible that true and deep faith comes alive and begins to reinvigorate.

The Answer to an Empty Culture

The emptiness of contemporary culture becomes more evident daily. By the time the Church reaches the point that Ratzinger describes, the banality of a life without transcendence may be fully apparent. But having stripped the Church bare, culture will have revealed the luminous beauty of the faith at just the time when its own corruption and hollowness is made fully clear. This is the point at which the few faithful who are truly living the Gospel will be seen as offering light in the darkness and as providing a way to eternity, truth, and salvation in a corrupted world.

The road to this point of turning will not be easy. This is perhaps what the pope emeritus wanted to steel the Church to endure. But in the very hardship of seeing the Church decay and come under increasingly heavy blows from the world emerges the hope and indeed the very Christian joy that a brighter day is coming.

Like its Savior, the Church apparently must also turn the other cheek and walk the way to Calvary in order to come to resurrection. But it does not walk this path alone, as Christ promised. He is always with His people, even in what seems the darkest hour.  Just as He stood with the three men in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace, Christ stands with His people in their most trying moments.

As the Church feels the flames of the earthly fire of contempt and disbelief, it should also feel the hand of its Lord embracing its own and hear His gentle words in its ear, “In this world, you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).