Dialogue Derailed : Joseph Ratzinger's War against Pluralist Theology

A critique of Joseph Ratzinger's opposition to religious pluralism, showing how it fails to engage with the experience of the church in Asia.

Joseph Ratzinger has shaped and guided the church''s mission to proclaim the good news, as well as to forge good relations with non-Catholic Christian communities, other religious traditions, and the secular world at large. Through a critique of Ratzinger''s theology, this book draws attention to the importance of theological discourses originating from non-European contexts. Mong highlights the gap between a dogmatic understanding of faith and the pastoral realities of the Asian church, as well as the difficulties faced by Asian theologians trying to make their voices heard in a church still dominated by Western thinking. While Mong concurs with much of Ratzinger''s analysis of the problems in modern society - such as the aggressive secularism and crisis of faith in Europe - he brings attention to the realities of religious pluralism in Asia, which require the church to adopt a different approach in its theological formulations and pastoral practices.