www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Books Pope Benedict XVI - Jesus of Nazareth (Vol 1)

Pope's scholarly book on Jesus scheduled for March release

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has completed the first volume of a major scholarly and spiritual book on Jesus of Nazareth, a work he began several years before being elected pope.

"Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration" is scheduled for a March release in Italian by the Rizzoli publishing house and in German by Herder Verlag.

Announcing the publication Nov. 21, Rizzoli and the Vatican gave reporters copies of the book's preface and a portion of its introduction.

In the preface, signed "Joseph Ratzinger -- Benedict XVI," the pope wrote that for decades he had noticed a growing scholarly distinction between the "historical Jesus" and the "Christ of faith," a distinction that many Christians now accept as accurate.

But, he wrote, if the human Jesus was totally different from the Jesus depicted in the Gospels and proclaimed by the church, what does it mean to have faith in him?

"I trust the Gospels," the pope wrote.

And while he said he relied on modern scholarly biblical criticism and historical research, "I wanted to attempt to present the Jesus of the Gospels as the true Jesus, as the 'historic Jesus' in the true sense of the expression."

"Only if something extraordinary happened, if the figure and words of Jesus radically exceeded all the hopes and expectations of his age, can his crucifixion and his effectiveness be explained," the pope wrote.

Pope Benedict explained that he began the book during his 2003 summer vacation, giving the final form to the first four chapters in the summer of 2004.

"After my election to the episcopal see of Rome, I used all of my free moments to work on it," he wrote. "Because I do not know how much time and how much strength I will still be given, I have decided to publish the first 10 chapters" as Volume One of "Jesus of Nazareth."

In a Nov. 21 statement, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, said, "The pope says clearly, with his usual simplicity and humility, that this is not a 'magisterial act,' but a fruit of his personal research and, as such, can be freely discussed and critiqued.

"It is not a long encyclical on Jesus, but a personal presentation of the figure of Jesus by the theologian Joseph Ratzinger," who was elected pope after beginning the work, Father Lombardi said.

"At the same time," the Jesuit said, "it is very significant that he, who was elected bishop of Rome and has the task of supporting the faith of his brothers and sisters, felt so strongly called to give us a new presentation of the figure of Jesus."

The Vatican publishing house, which holds the rights to all the pope's written works, announced Nov. 21 that the pope had handed in the manuscript and that the Vatican had turned to Rizzoli to translate the work, find publishers for it around the world and handle the marketing.

A spokesman for Rizzoli said that as of Nov. 21 the company was prepared to announce only the publication in Italian and German.

Benedict's New Book To Follow, ''The Pope's Path Towards Jesus''

Rome, Apr 13, 2007 (CNA) - The Italian publishing house, Rizzoli has released an extensive press release and synopsis of Pope Benedict's new book, "Jesus of Nazareth." The book is to go on sale in Italian, German, and Polish bookshops starting Monday, April 16, which is also the Pope's 80th birthday. The volume, 448 pages long, is to be translated into 20 languages, and will be available in English starting May 15th.

Rizzoli, which was entrusted by the Vatican Publishing House with the sale of the rights of the book throughout the world, today released a press communiqu� stating that "'Jesus of Nazareth' is the first part of a two-volume work examining Jesus' public life from His Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration."

"On the one hand," the communiqu� continues, "this is a pastoral narrative ... offering an introduction to the principles of Christianity. ... On the other, the text is an essay that maintains the strict academic discipline that distinguish the writings and talks of the theologian Joseph Ratzinger.

"The pastoral concerns of the Pope," it adds, "and his exceptional theological doctrine, come together to focus on the central theme of the work: the conviction that, in order to understand the figure of Jesus Christ, it is necessary to start from His union with the Father.�

"A historical-critical methodology is indispensable for serious exegesis." Such a methodology "has granted access to a great quantity of material and knowledge that enable us to reconstruct the figure of Jesus with a profundity unimaginable a few decades ago. Nonetheless, only faith can lead to the understanding that Jesus is God; and if in the light of this conviction the sacred texts are read with the instruments of modern historical-critical methodology, they reveal ... a figure worthy of faith.

"For Joseph Ratzinger, faith and critical research are complementary, not antagonistic, and the Jesus of the Gospels is the historical Jesus," the communiqu� concludes.

A synopsis of the new volume, entitled "the Pope's path towards Jesus," makes it clear that this book "reflects the personal search by Joseph Ratzinger for the 'face of Jesus,' and is not a document of the Magisterium."

"For Benedict XVI, the biblical text contains all the elements to affirm that the historical figure of Jesus Christ is also in fact the Son of God, Who came to earth to save humankind."

"Based on the intimate unity between the Old and New Testament, and employing Christological hermeneutics which see in Jesus Christ to the key to the entire Bible, Joseph Ratzinger presents the Jesus of the Gospels as the 'new Moses' Who fulfills the ancient expectations of Israel. This new and true Moses must lead the people of God to real and definitive freedom. He does so through successive steps which, nonetheless, always allow God's plan to be seen in its entirety."

In this light, "the immersion of Jesus in the waters of the Jordan is the symbol of His death and descent into hell, a reality that accompanied Him throughout His life. In order to save humanity, ... He had to overcome the principal temptations that in different forms threaten mankind of all times and, transforming them into obedience, reopen the way towards God, towards the Promised Land which is the Kingdom of God."

"The theme of the 'Kingdom of God' which runs throughout Jesus' announcement is given deeper consideration in the Pope's reflection on the Sermon on the Mount, ... in which the Beatitudes constitute the main points of the new Law and, at the same time, represent a self-portrait of Jesus." The Sermon "shows that this Law is not just, as in Moses' case, the result of a 'face to face' meeting with God, but carries in itself the fullness that arises from Jesus' intimate union with the Father."

Hence, a "fundamental element" of man's life is "talking and listening to God. And for this reason Benedict XVI has dedicated an entire chapter to prayer, explaining the Our Father that Jesus Himself taught us."

The synopsis continues: "The profound contact of men and women with God the Father through Jesus in the Holy Spirit brings them together in the 'us' of a new family which, with the choosing of the Twelve, recalls the origins of Israel. ... Even in its highly varied composition, the new family of Jesus, the Church of all times, finds in Him the unifying center and the guidance to live the universal nature of His Gospel.

"In order to make the content of His message more accessible and to turn it into a form of practical guidance, Jesus used parables. ... However, there is also a purely theological explanation of the meaning of the parables, and Joseph Ratzinger highlights this in a singularly profound analysis."

The Holy Father's book then goes on to consider "the metaphors used by Jesus to explain His mystery." These are "the great images of St. John," but "before analyzing them the Pope presents a very interesting summary of the various results of academic research into who John the Evangelist was," and "opens new horizons for readers, revealing Jesus ever more clearly as the 'Word of God'."

"This point of view is broadened further in the last two chapters of the book ... where the true mission of the Messiah of God and the destiny of those who follow Him is definitively established." Finally "an in-depth analysis of the titles which, according to the Gospels, Jesus used for Himself, concludes the Pontiff's book."

"Alongside the man of faith, ... alongside the highly sophisticated theologian, ... what also emerges from this book is the pastor who truly manages to 'encourage in readers the growth of a living relationship' with Jesus Christ. ... In this light," the synopsis concludes, "the Pontiff is not afraid to tell the world that, by excluding God and clinging only to visible and material reality, we risk self destruction in the selfish search for a purely material wellbeing," while renouncing the possibility "of achieving true freedom in the 'Promised Land,' the 'Kingdom of God.��

The Pope�s Book: Jesus of Nazareth
CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM � Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 2:55 pm

I was at the presentation of the Pope�s book, Jesus of Nazareth in the Aula del Sinodo on Friday 13 April 2007. Others will write about or post the talks by the presenters. You can pre-order the book in English, and help WDTPRS, by using the link above or here.

Here are some of my personal notes. I do not intend to recap the book (impossible) or speakk much about the press conference (a waste of time). They are intended only to help you read Joseph Ratzinger�s work more fruitfully.

It is not new to receive a book from a Pope. In the past, they were the fruits of interviews, or they were biographical or poetry. But this is a work of theology. That�s new. Even though it is a work of theology, it is not a contribution to the Magisterium. That�s new. This point was heavily stressed in the presser. This book is a contribution of �Joseph Ratzinger� to all who are interested in Jesus. The novelty of this book is its context, coming as it does from a Pope.

The book is intended to be �pastoral�. At the same time it is to be �a rigorous work of theology�. I am not sure how the pastoral thing is going to work out: the Italian edition has 446 dense pages. And I mean conceptually dense. It is truly the work of Joseph Ratzinger. As a matter of fact, all the editions I saw (Greek, Polish, Italian, English, German, Italian, French, Spanish) print the name �Benedict XVI� much larger than the name �Joseph Ratzinger� on the dust cover, but he signs his preface: �Joseph Ratzinger � Benedict XVI�, as if, for the sake of this book, his being Pope is incidental. I am not sure that his being Pope will be incidental for sales, however.

He wrote the book duing the last few summers, which astonishes me, given his many cares. Clearly he gave a lot of thought to it before he wrote it. Thought and prayer, which turns out to be an important dimension of the book. Without snuffing out faith in his intellectual examination Pope Ratzinger remains an objective hunter after the Truth. So, the Pope puts himself into the modern public square, the post-Christian and post-modern areopagus. He does so as a man of rigorous intellectual discipline but also a man of faith. Faith not just in abstractions, but in a Person.

Returning to that notion of "pastoral" a couple side comments are in order. For a very long time now there has been a false dichotomy between �pastoral� and anything intellectually exacting. I can�t say how many times I hvae heard bishops and priests divorce "pastoral" and all those other bad things like being smart, or being exacting. Many are therefore baffled by the Pope�s life-long ability to work within both categories.

In the book, one of the Pope�s goals is to employ the historical-critical method of exegesis, a scientific method, which embraces its advantages and also recognizes its limitations. For example, in his preface he reminds us that the historical-critical method, as indispensible as it is, nevertheless is forced to leave the Word of God in the past only. But the Word is always in the now too, it is present. Exegetes must not fall into that trap. Ratzinger examines biblical with an eye to their completeness, which is not in contradiction with the historical-critical method, but develops it in an organic manner and turns it into theology true and properly understood.

Another relevant tangent: His Holiness has a global or �organic� vision of theological method. The same goes for liturgy. This is a key to understanding one of his motives for a derestriction the older form of Mass. The older form would influence the newer form, and vice versa, resulting in a tertium quid. What His Holiness is doing in this book is what he has done in all the fields which interest him. Whether it has to do with the �source and summit� of Christian life (the Eucharist and It�s celebration), or a vision of Europe which has the indispensable structure of Christendom at its core, philosophy or theology, or explaining the relationship of faith and reason, Ratzinger does not create false divisions.

The Holy Father, as a working theologian, therefore makes use of the modern tools of scientific method, but always with logical priority given to what is known by faith in revelation. Therefore, he does not destroy the very biblical texts he so closely examines. This has been a problem of the application of the scientific method of the Scripture scholarship, that is the study that does not reduce the Bible to literature only, for many decades.

You will remember that during his Mass for Holy Thursday the Pope caused a bit of surprise by using modern research on the nature of the Last Supper. In his book, Benedict makes use of modern research on the figure of St. John the Baptist. As Pope, he demonstrates that he is willing to move outside the golden cage of pontifical precedents and Patristic glosses. The Pope doesn�t limit himself to Denziger-Schoenmetzer.

Since Joseph Ratzinger during his long career as a theologian has not fallen into the trap of reducing the object of his contemplation to a formula or abstraction there is a chapter on prayer, in which he explains the �Our Father�, which is the prayer Christ taught us. The Pope stays very close to the Scriptural texts in every move he makes in this book. Card. Schoenborn related his personal experience of the Pope as a teacher and then colleague. He said that the Pope never was without his little Nestle-Aland edition of the New Testament in Greek.

One of the engines driving Pope Ratzinger�s book was his reading a work 15 years ago by a rabbi, Jakob Neusner, A Rabbi Talks With Jesus. Benedict returns often to his insights. For example, His Holiness recounts his reading of Neusner�s book, wherein Neusner spends a day with Jesus, following him in an interior dialogue and then returns to his study of Torah with other rabbis. One rabbi says to the interior Neusner, �613 precepts were given by Moses, 365 negatives ones corresponding to the number of days of the year and 248 positives corresponding to the number of parts of the body. David comes along and reduces them to 11� Isaiah reduces them down to 2. Habakkuk distills them to one only, as it is written: �The righteous one will live by his faith (Hab 2,4)�. �And so�, a rabbi asks the interior Neusner, �is this what Jesus has to say?�, Neusner responds, � Not quite, but almost.� The other rabbi: �What did he leave out?� Neusner: �Nothing.� The other rabbi: �Then what did he add?� Neusner: �Himself.� The point being that Neusner will not follow Jesus because of the radical �I� of Jesus� message. Neusner cites Matthew 19:21: �If you want to perfect� follow me.� For Ratzinger, this helps create a conceptual bridge: �The perfection required by the Torah, being holy as God is holy (cf. Lev 19,2; 11,44), now consists in following Jesus.�

This little episode from Pope Benedict�s book is an object lesson in his theological method. He is always concerned to keep faith and reason in the right perspective, but always in play in their proper roles. Moreover, Ratzinger has always used interesting non-Christian or non-Catholic, or even errant doctrines as springboards for theological work. No one who has read enough Ratzinger is surprise that he does this, even though his nimbleness leaves one a bit breathless. For example, I think it can be argued that Joseph Ratzinger probably knows more about Liberation Theology than anyone. If might surprise some that he uses points of Liberation Theology in one of his own works on liturgy. Consider using the image of Christ is �Liberator� when working theologically with liturgical issues. This is what he did in A New Song for the Lord: Faith in Christ and Liturgy Today.

The Pope sets out like so many, to search for the Historical Jesus. Someone is always doing this, of course. Jesus is usually morphed into someone else every thirty years or so, and always at the expense of Jesus Himself. These these searches wind up emphasizing one dimension of Christ into order to underscore another. Understanding that there will always be more to say about Jesus, the Pope offers this work, fully expecting that it will be met with resistance and criticism from some circles.

But this book was not really written against modern theological work and socio-historical research, that is, as a polemic. The Pope recognizes how much modern work as contributed. He strives to present a more logical and comprehensible figure than what we have found in the last few years of trumpeted �discoveries� about the �historical Jesus�. For Benedict, the Jesus presented in the Gospels is a believable figure.

As Card. Schoenborn phrased it in the press conference for the book�s presentation, the penchant for seeing Jesus as a Revolutionary or the lover of Mary Magdalene, to name but a couple distortions, can be dumped into the ossuary of history.

For a very long time now there has been a false dichotomy between �pastoral� and anything intellectually exacting.

The Holy Father, as a working theologian, therefore makes use of the modern tools of scientific method, but always with logical priority given to what is known by faith in revelation. Therefore, he does not destroy the very biblical texts he so closely examines. This has been a problem of the application of the scientific method of the Scripture scholarship, that is the study that does not reduce the Bible to literature only, for many decades

Cardinal Bertone Discusses Pope�s �Profound� Reflection on Christ

Vatican City, Apr 16, 2007 (CNA).- The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said that in his new book "Jesus of Nazareth," Pope Benedict XVI offers a profound look at Christ's friendship with a suffering humanity in search of the eternal.

In statements to Vatican Radio, the Cardinal said, "Without a doubt, the figure of Christ, the revelation of Christ is the foundation of our faith - as another author has said - and He is the foundation of history."

In response to the modern-day debate about the person of Christ, �a debate often misguided by the ignorance of so many people who ascribe to themselves the right, the competence to speak too broadly on an issue about which they know nothing, the Pope gives his vision of Christ,� Cardinal Bertone stated.

�The Pope is passionate about Christ; he has profound knowledge of Jesus Christ and of Christianity. We see that in his first book [written as Joseph Ratzinger], �An Introduction to Christianity,� which could be read today with much benefit. And today he offers us this panorama, this deepening on the person of Christ. Christ as the way of interpreting life, the destiny of all human persons and of all of humanity. And therefore, Christ also as friend of this humanity on a journey, of this tormented humanity that is also fixed on the eternal and on things that give meaning to life.�

Additionally, Cardinal Bertone also spoke about the first two years of Benedict XVI�s Pontificate, emphasizing a series of important milestones such as his meeting with young people in Rome and his trip to Turkey.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070417181453.0x3eqqxg&show_article=1

50,000 copies sold in Italy on the first day of release...

Gordo

Bring it on!
Ed

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070417181453.0x3eqqxg&show_article=1

50,000 copies sold in Italy on the first day of release...

Gordo

One more has been sold here. Mine is pre-ordered and St. Amazon promises delivery by May 18th.

"I trust the Gospels," the pope wrote.

Super!!! I hope they make room for it at the bookstores by pitching those Spong books.

Eddie

It would be nice if the Evangelical Community got behind this book as it would agree with most things we agree about Jesus anyway.

This books sound like a master treatise of the Jesus of the aposotlic and Nicean Creeds (please no comment on the filoque) that Catholic, Orthodox and protestant christians can agree upon and I hope they all support this book to show thier is an oppostion to the trash theology of the Davinci Code and Gnostic gospels and historical Jesus crowd.