Includes index.

Contents:

I. The Good Friday of History

II. Salvation: More than a Cliche'

III. Politics and truth: Jesus before Pilate

IV. Augustine's confrontation with the political theology of Rome: The rejection of Rome's political theology--

The untruthfulness of the political religion-- The power of demons

The starting point for the Augustinian theology of the political: The Antithesis of the Stoa-- The Antithesis of Platonism

The theological use of the Old Testament and of Roman history

The place of the church in history

Conclusion

V. Christians faced with forms of totalitarianism

VI. Truth, values, power: Touschstones of pluralistic society

Freedom, law, and the good: moral principles in democratic societies

The public claim of conscience

Individual freedom and common values

Respecting a core of humanity

If you want truth, respect the conscience of every person: conscience and truth

A conversation on the erroneous conscience and first inferences

Newman and Socrates: guides to conscience

Systematic consequences: the two levels of conscience: Anamnesis-- Conscientia

Epilogue: Conscience and grace

The significance of ethical and religious values in a pluralistic society

Relativism as a precondition of democracy

What is the state for

The contradictory answers to the questions of the foundations of democracy

The relativistic theory

The metaphysical and Christian thesis

Evidential character of morality? mediating positions

VII. The ethical foundations of political choices: the speech in Westminster Hall (September 17,2010)

Affirming the right to combat injustice: the speech in the Bundestag (September 22, 2011)

Blessed are the peacemakers: message for the 46th world day of peace (January 1, 2013)

Reason and faith for a common ethics: a dialogue with Jurgen Habermas (January 19, 2004)

Power and law

New forms of power and new questions about mastering it

Prerequisitees for law: law-- nature-- reason

Interculturality and its consequences

XI. Does God exist? a debate of Joseph Ratzinger with Paolo Flores d'Arcais (September 21, 2000)

Pope Francis, in his foreword, states that one of the major themes in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger is the relationship between faith and politics: "His firsthand experience of Nazi totalitarianism led him even as a young student to reflect on the limits of obedience to the state for the sake of the liberty of obeying God." In support of this, he quotes from one of Ratzinger's texts presented in this volume: "The state is not the whole of human existence and does not encompass all human hope." Ratzinger explored various aspects of this subject in books, speeches, and homilies throughout his career, from his years as a theology professor to his tenure as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and most recently as Pope Benedict XVI. This is the only book that collates all of his most significant works on political themes inside one volume.