by George Weigel
“Makes powerfully clear the self-destructive consequences of squandering one’s inheritance.”
-National Review
On April 18, 2005, at the Mass prior to the conclave that would elect him pope, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger described European culture as an emerging “dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s ego and desires.” George Weigel, author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (still available from us for $10, 50% off the regular selling price), contrasts the civilization that produced the modernist “cube” of the Great Arch of La Defense in Paris with the civilization that produced the “cathedral, Notre Dame.”
“Highly readable....George Weigel at his best.”—Mary Ann Glendon, Ambassador to the Vatican
“Weigel’s impassioned essay on the strange death of European Christianity....a warning to Americans that their assumptions about a shared ‘Western civilization’ are fast becoming obsolete.”- Niall Ferguson, author of Empire and Colossus
“Mr. Weigel is a past master at penning lively and lucid studies of contemporary issues.” - National Catholic Reporter
“Sure to be much discussed - and possibly to be remarkably influential.” - Kirkus Reviews
Quality paperback
Extensive notes
Good index