The Conditions of Living Christian Faith in the Secular World: A Theological Dialogue Between Charles Taylor and Joseph Ratzinger in the Context of the Syro-Malabar Church

This study focuses on the conditions of Christian faith in the secular world through a study of the views of Charles Taylor and Joseph Ratzinger. Taylor overcomes the disappearance thesis of religion through his narrative of secularization and points out the changed conditions of faith today. He traces the tacit levels behind our choice for belief/unbelief and identifies the space open to transcendence in the secular world as the place of religion today. Ratzinger conceives secularization as a mutual separation of faith and reason, giving birth to the dictatorship of relativism in the West. He elaborates the rationality of faith - through his theology of logos - to overcome the dictatorship of relativism and to re-establish a broad concept of reason which is not reduced to narrow instrumental rationality. By bringing together Taylor’s view of the space open to transcendence and Ratzinger’s view of the theology of logos , this study overcomes the disappearance thesis of Christianity and the view that Christian faith is irrational and mythical. The synthesis established through a dialogue between the theology of logos and the space open to transcendence is found to be relevant to the Syro-Malabar Church. The space open to transcendence is an appeal to the Syro-Malabar Church to understand its genuine place in its context(s) and the theology of logos is an aid to understanding Christian faith as true and as reasonable.