Published: 2018-06-15

The Issue of Democracy and Totalitarianism in the Thought of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger - Benedict XVI

Mariusz Sulkowski
Christianity-World-Politics
Section: Articles
https://doi.org/10.21697/csp.2017.21.1.07

Abstract

The aim of this research was to analyze the connection between democracy and totalitarianism according to the thought of J. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. The research hypothesis was that J. Ratzinger recognized a serious risk of democracy becoming totalitarianism (this thought was consistent with John Paul II’s belief that a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism (CA, 46). Paradoxically, the key to this transformation is the concept of freedom detached from the category of good and truth. According to J. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, democracy should be considered primarily in substantive terms (the content of democracy) and not only in procedural and institutional terms. In this regard, the essence of democracy is constituted by human rights based on natural law, whereas modern liberal democracy tends to undermine moral values, on which it is founded and which it is unable to provide by itself. The growing moral relativism is more and more presented as an immanent part of democracy itself. As a result, the society that adopts the freedom “liberated” from all truth (ontological and axiological) shows auto-destructive tendencies.

Keywords:

Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, democracy, totalitarianism, freedom, relativism, truth

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Citation rules

Sulkowski, M. (2018). The Issue of Democracy and Totalitarianism in the Thought of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger - Benedict XVI. Christianity-World-Politics, (21), 107–122. https://doi.org/10.21697/csp.2017.21.1.07

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