In the worlwide best seller Values in a Time of Upheaval, Joseph Ratzinger passionately defends the role traditional Judeo-Christian values should play in a pluralistic society and multicultural world. He examines such crucial contemporary issues as the moral foundation of a free society, the role of spiritual values in promoting human rights, current challenges to Western culture, and the place of faith and love of God in finding true peace.

Joseph Ratzinger proposes a balance of faith and reason that avoids the extremes of fundamentalist theocracies and secular, relativist states.