Well known for his important scholarly contributions to dogmatic theology and biblical studies, Joseph Ratzinger has also written penetrating observations of our times. This book includes some of his keen insights into the social and political challenges confronting modern Western societies. Writing most of these chapters just before his election as pope, Ratzinger sought to remind Europeans, who at the time were crafting a new constitution, that the civilizational project we call "the West" is a cultural achievement with a history. Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome, he reminds us, were the three foundation stones upon which Western civilization was built. The invaluable contributions of these three still form the basis for the Western understanding of human dignity and human rights, which spread from Europe to the United States and beyond. This book also includes, as an epilogue, a new essay by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on clerical sex abuse, tracing the moral disorder that preys upon the young to the collapse of faith both inside and outsdie the Church. --