Moral Relativism

Review of "The Grand Inquisitor" by Nick Milne

The Grand Inquisitor is prefaced by a passage from an address delivered by Cardinal Ratzinger in 1991. In it, he relates the story of how he once found himself amidst a group of clerics who gradually managed to lead each other to believe that acts of even the most appalling evil, if perpetrated by those who were utterly convinced that those acts were morally just, could not possibly be sufficient to damn a soul. To put it bluntly: even those who have committed genocide, provided they thought genocide was good, could be assured a place in Heaven. And so:

There is no doubting the fact that Hitler and his accomplices who were deeply convinced of their cause, could not have acted otherwise. Therefore, the objective terribleness of their deeds notwithstanding, they acted morally, subjectively speaking. Since they followed their albeit mistaken consciences, one would have to recognize their conduct as moral and, as a result, should not doubt their eternal salvation.

Since that conversation, I knew with complete certainty that something was wrong with the theory…