Later, during the student turmoil of 1968, the entirety of the Christian tradition came under scathing attack from Marxist ideologists in the university. Ratzinger suggests that he was naive in assuming that the theology faculties would be a bastion of sanity: quite the opposite turned out to be the case. While his own lectures continued to be well attended and well received, many of his theological colleagues were all too eager to get on the good side of the putative revolution. At this point he began to discover what would later be called "the ecumenism of the trenches," as he made alliances with Evangelical (Lutheran) colleagues who appreciated what was at stake. "We saw that the confessional controversies we had engaged in up until now were small indeed in the face of the challenge we now confronted, which put us in a position of having to bear common witness to our common faith in the living God and in Christ, the incarnate Word."
We disagree on many of the details, and that is why we are still not one. But we agree on devotation to Jesus Christ. Because of this, all Christians should fight on the same side.
Dis-Appointing Catholic Revisionists: A Protestant Comment
These non-Roman Christians have, of course, their traditional disagreements with Rome, but in the face of the common opposition they understand that an educated and catholic sense of proportion requires they not only may, but--if they have come to the conclusion that traditional Catholics are to be honored with the name of Christian--must subordinate these perennial concerns to resistance on the common front. They must not allow their disagreements to weaken their support for each other. Touchstone stands as a witness to an alliance, and behind it a mind, that is far broader and deeper than the journal itself.