Peter Samuel Kucer here traces out the critical question of the relationship of theology and politics, particularly as it intersects with ecclesiology, through a focus on the issue of the theological relationship to socialism. In this, Kucer demonstrates the competing accounts in the theologies of Joseph Ratzinger and John Milbank, arguing that Ratzingers theology is oriented in such a way that it maintains a provisional openness with regard to political formsthat theology and politics, while interconnected, do not demand commitment to a singular form of political modelin contrast to Milbanks work, which subscribes to a particular pattern of church and politics.