The Pope as a political philosopher . . .

Benedict XVI -- "a profound political thinker"

Apropos of the previous post, this from Thomas Rourke, professor of political science at Clarion University in Pennsylvania, from his article in Communio: International Catholic Review (Fall, 2008).

Describing Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) as "a most profound political thinker," Professor Rourke writes:

. . . a central feature of the pope's fundamental politics is to show how the state's openness to God, far from leading to theocracy, is actually the only thing that enables the state to distinguish itself properly from the Church, and thus to resist the twin temptations of utopianism and totalitarianism.

Now there is a thought: a deracinated and ideologically secularized state -- unable to properly distinguish itself from "Church" -- flirting with a utopian ideal and slowly (or not so slowly) proposing totalitarian means for achieving it.