Joseph Ratzinger and the Healing of Reformation-Era Divisions
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Edited by Emery de Gaál and Matthew Levering, Joseph Ratzinger and the Healing of Reformation-Era Divisions examines Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI’s manifold contributions to Catholic-Protestant theological reflection. The collection opens with an introduction comparing Ratzinger’s approach to ecumenism to that of Karl Rahner. Rahner argues that the structural uniting of Protestants and Catholics should take place now without worrying about doctrinal differences. In contrast, Ratzinger argues that unity in Christ requires probing the doctrinal differences and seeking a deeper understanding of the reasoning of each side—on the grounds that the truth of the Gospel that each side desires to preserve will ultimately be the basis for the only kind of Christian ecclesial unity worth having, namely, a unity of the basis of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Detailed essays follow, treating a number of loci including papal primacy, ecumenical principles, liturgy, evangelization, Mariology, Christ’s birth and the celebration of Christmas, public theology, Christocentrism, Martin Luther, charity, conscience, missiology, justification, the reception of Ratzinger/Benedict in Radical Orthodoxy, and Scripture and Tradition. These essays run the full gamut of Ratzinger/Benedict’s major themes and preoccupations.
Ten of the essays are by Catholic scholars, and seven by Protestant scholars. Contributors include many of the world’s leading Ratzinger experts, and the volume opens with an essay by Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer, Director of the Pope Benedict XVI Institute in Regensburg, Germany.
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- Contains seventeen essays with different authors collaborations
- Contains a collection of timely essays on the ecumenical legacy of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
- Follows Ratzinger's ecumenical path based on a personal friendship and desire to learn the other's concerns
- Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer: Joseph Ratzinger's Martyrological Understanding of Papal Primacy: A Key for Unsolved Ecumenical Problems
- Thomas A. Baima: Principles for an Ecumenical Future: Joseph Ratzinger and "A Reforming Catholic Confession"
- Mariusz Biliniewicz: Reformation-Era Principles of Biblical Exegesis and Contemporary Roman Catholic Liturgy in the Thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI
- Stephen Bullivant: The Thames Flows into the Tiber: Benedict XVI, Performative Ecumenism, and the Place of Christians in a Secular Society
- Emery de Gail: Mariology as Christology and Ecclesiology: Professor Joseph Ratzinger's Only Mariology Course
- Timothy Larsen: Joseph Ratzinger on the Nativity of Our Lord: Protestants and Catholics Reunite for Christmas
- Peter J. Leithart: Ratzinger and Public Theology
- David Luy: Joseph Ratzinger's Ecumenical Christocentrism
- Mickey L. Mattox: The Luther the Cardinal Did Not Know: Occasional Notes on the Luther of Recent Research
- Kenneth Oakes: Joseph Ratzinger on Divine Love
- Matthew S. C. Olver: Although We Be Unworthy: Anglicans, Eucharistic Sacrifice, and the Protestant Loss of Ritual
- Willemien Often: Joseph Ratzinger and the Medieval Paradigm of Creation: From Bonaventure to Eriugena
- Jacob Phillips: Joseph Ratzinger and Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Heteronomy and Conscience during the Third Reich
- Aaron Pidel, Si: The Church of the "Few" for the "Many": Ratzinger's Missiology of Vicarious Representation
- Michael Root: Ratzinger and the Doctrine of Justification
- Tracey Rowland: Joseph Ratzinger and the Healing of the Reformation-Era Divisions: Radical Orthodoxy as a Case Study in Re-Weaving the Tapestry
- Douglas A. Sweeney: Ratzinger on Scripture, Tradition, and Church: An Evangelical Assessment
This book is a testimony to true ecumenical dialogue. Rather than engage in a bland ‘ecumenism of negotiation,’ De Gaál and Levering put on display an ‘ecumenism of mutual gift.’ The high caliber of both Catholic and Protestant contributions, along with the friendship among the contributors, are the guarantee that this dialogue will in fact yield the desired mutual enrichment. This book is a major accomplishment and deserves prayerful reading and reflection with a hopeful eye to full doctrinal and ecclesial unity.
— Hans Boersma, Nashotah House
Here is a collection of timely essays on the ecumenical legacy of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the most consequential Catholic theologian since the Second Vatican Council. An important contribution to the ongoing journey toward Christian unity.
— Timothy George, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University
This volume represents an important step forward in Ratzinger scholarship, exploring as it does a remarkable range of topics germane to the emeritus pontiff’s ecumenical vision. The authors follow Ratzinger in rejecting a dead-end ecumenical approach that would marginalize questions of doctrinal truth—and thereby the reason anyone would want to be Christian in the first place. What is more, by including both Catholic and Protestant scholars in the endeavor, the editors have produced a volume which not only speaks with erudition on the subject of ecumenism but—just as importantly—puts it into practice.
— Matthew J. Ramage, Benedictine College
This honest and hopeful volume merits careful reading by Catholic and Protestant scholars seeking deeper communion in Christ. The contributors outline areas of mutual enrichment without papering over ongoing major differences. The editors are to be commended for guiding this volume to reflect Ratzinger’s patient, preserving, and reforming spirit. I hope this collection will fuel further productive biblical-theological collaboration.
— Paul House, Beeson Divinity School of Samford University