Joseph Ratzinger exercises his role as teacher and spiritual leader with this impressive work on the crucial topics of the relationship between religion, morality, culture, truth and politics in these troubled times. He passionately defends the vital role that traditional Christian values play in our increasingly pluralistic and multi-cultural world. In his preface to the book, Ratzinger asks the questions, "What are in fact fact the foundations on which we live? What supports our societies and holds them together? How do states discern their moral bases and the forces that motivate them to moral conduct--forces without which a state cannot exist?" Combining faith and reason, a "political theology" emerges in these pages that avoids the extremes of rampant fundamentalism and excessive relativism and secularism. The book is divided into three main parts: "What Rules Should Guide Our Conduct?"; "Responsibility for Peace"; "What is Europe?."