Theologia benedicta wobec nazizmu i komunizmu. Aspekt pastoralno-historyczno-polityczny

The way J. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI addresses the issues of communism and Nazism in his works leads to the very essence of the problem, which is shown as a bigger one and – unfortunately – more long-lasting than the 20th century faces of these two ideologies. He emphasises the fundamental, crucial relationship between these concepts (simultaneously constituting political systems) and atheism, negation of God, both in the spheres of faith and ethos. Metaphysical aspirations of men, distorted by absence of God, are diabolically deformed and, finally – in their mutated version, deluding by national-, social- and economic Utopia – assume the forms of cruel, totalitarian systems of power and violence, directed against men. Within the closed circle of history and matter driven by the power of mind independent of the objective (God’s) truth, today it also proves impossible to make the world better with no conversion, i.e. without ensuring the right place for God in individual and public life, unless God is perceived as the Lord of the whole history who can give future and hope to men.