Ratzingers books ‘The Faith and the Future’
This is a so so book, one that saw reprint recently because of Benedicts successful ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ series, as what it contains could have been properly digested down to a magazine length article with a near equivalent buildup and conclusion, at least for the general reader. The conclusion or last chapter ‘What Will the Church Look Like in 2000?’ elucidates of a smaller church and saints being necessary.
But philosophies(modernism,liberalism) have consequences and the great and conservative Catholic philosophers(Ratzinger/Benedict included) have been seeing the path that ‘modernism’ has been following as the final fulfillment of ‘The Great Enlightenment’ and there will be Catholic blood in the streets—again! Unfortunately, this book only elucidates on that previous sentence(my sentence/words) in only a poor or maybe fair(poor to fair) way with other materials in print, from that time and most certainly today, doing a much better job.
If Ratzinger was being prophetic in 69’, then everyone seeing the church fall apart in the 60’s and 70’s would be prophetic too. The books last chapter , titled:
‘What Will the Church Look Like in 2000?’ is a bit off the prophetic year mark.
The book contains a few quotable nuggets and he’s the Pope, and thats why people buzz and talk about it.
"But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret."
--Faith and the Future