This is a guest post by Gerard Mannion from the Catholic University in Leuven. Gerard is one of the editors of our forthcoming title The Ratzinger Reader due to be published in January 2010.
When Joseph Ratzinger was formally announced as Pope Benedict XVI from the balcony above St Peter’s Square on April 19th 2005, completing his long journey from being a pastor-theologian to the Chair of Peter, unlike either of his two immediate predecessors (indeed, in a global sense, any of his predecessors), the world already knew a great deal about him. For the first time in history, here was a pontiff whose books were being read across the globe, whose ideas were widely known, who even had his own online ‘fan club’. So, too were there many books and articles, both popular and scholarly about him. And all this prior to his elevation to Peter’s chair.
Of course, the attention afforded him since his elevation to the Pontificate has multiplied enormously, and the number of books about him is legion. So there are many volumes about Joseph Ratzinger the theologian in print already, including other collections of his writings. Exhaustive bibliographies have been produced and many are available freely on the World Wide Web. A complete edition of his entire published corpus is also presently in production. So why another book about him?
This volume seeks to offer something different and its subtitle – mapping a theological journey – offers the key to understanding the intentions behind this work. The volume brings together a collection of the key writings of Joseph Ratzinger, from his earlier writings, to the ‘transition period’ following his disillusionment with developments in the church in the aftermath of Vatican II, to his pioneering and frequently polemical writings as part of the Communio project, to his debates and disagreements with fellow theologians and schools of theology. Representative writings contemporaneous to his time as Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are naturally included, but the emphasis in this volume is upon Joseph Ratzinger as ‘private theologian’. The time for a compilation of his papal writings lies in the future.
Here we focus on his writings as a private theologian partly because his many writings released in a personal capacity chart the formation of and comment upon the official statements and texts released under his name in a more informative fashion than the simple inclusion of the formulaic ‘official texts’ themselves. But, more significantly still, we wish to offer a comprehensive portrait of the scope of Ratzinger’s theological vision, charting the core themes that have preoccupied him over the decades and illustrating his theological sources, methods and styles. We therefore hope that this volume will afford general readers, students, scholars and Ratzinger specialists alike, a synoptic perspective on the nature and substance of the theology of Joseph Ratzinger. Finally, as Ratzinger has frequently said himself, his writings as a private theologian carry no official ecclesial authority and therefore are entirely open for debate, discussion and questioning. Therefore all readers can fruitfully explore the various perspectives and conclusions that such a synoptic portrait might bring to light.
This volume is the product of collaboration over the course of three years between two theologians from differing contexts and methodological backgrounds. A chance meeting at a Vatican conference on Gaudium et spes in 2005 and a long conversation over an ice cream whilst walking around the entire perimeter of the Vatican complex itself (on a day of searing heat!) led to the realisation of a shared conviction that the familiar picture of Ratzinger as a theologian whose mind had somehow dramatically changed along the way was a misleading one.
Both of us had earlier and independently came to the same conclusion that the familiar picture of a once-liberal turned arch-conservative is thus misleading. If anything, the shifts in Ratzinger’s thinking have been more subtle than often presumed and suggest a more pragmatic personal character than his doctrinal pronouncements indicate. Thus his seemingly more progressive tone adopted during the Second Vatican Council and, in relation to some areas of doctrine and theology, in the immediate years following its end should not be interpreted not, as is often presumed, as the revolutionary zeal of a young man turned into mature realism with the benefit of increased wisdom and experience. No, rather those earlier flashes of progressiveness might better be interpreted, if one is going to be generous, as a young and talented scholar and priest finding his way in the church and academy alike. Surrounded by the progressive giants, not least of all his fellow Deutsche-phones, such as Karl Rahner and Hans Küng, and not least of all his role as a conciliar advisor to Cardinal Frings, little wonder that he may have chosen to proceed more tentatively during that period and allowed himself and his ideas alike to be caught up in and swept along in the aggiornamento and hence progressiveness that seemed destined to be the consensus that would emerge from the council. We must also remember that his career as an academic theologian was then still in its formative stages, thus pragmatism might have been deemed prudent with regard to certain debates and issues during the conciliar period.
But, whichever picture is the more accurate, or whatever alternative might prove to be moreso, there is more consistency to the thinking of Joseph Ratzinger, than has often been the impression given in Catholic periodicals and both popular and scholarly volumes alike.
The editors of this volume have also sought to remain true to their own methodological, contextual and disciplinary backgrounds. We have consciously chosen to avoid trying to offer a uniform and standardised approach to introducing and analysing the writings of Ratzinger included here. One of us is a specialist in fundamental theology, the other has dual specialisms in ecclesiology and ethics. One hails from continental Europe and is steeped in the approaches to Ratzinger across the heart of Europe, the other is an Irish citizen with particular familiarity of the Anglophone reception of Ratzinger both sides of the Atlantic alongside the wider European responses to his theological vision. Together we hope our differing backgrounds, styles and approaches will prove complementary and offer some further stimulation to reflection and discussion for the reader.
Given the importance of hermeneutical principles and practice to the rationale behind not simply this volume, but also as a key to understanding the thought of its subject as well, one third of this book necessarily takes the form of editorial introduction and commentary – in this Preface and the General Introduction to the volume as a whole, to each broad thematic area in the chapter introductions and to each reading in its own right as a particular manifestation of the thoughts, methods and modus operandi of Joseph Ratzinger. Where appropriate, we have also sought to point the reader in the direction of questions which other schools of thought, method and perhaps even critics of Ratzinger might raise.
It was also a priority for us to provide readings of a substantial length, as opposed to brief ‘bitesize’ readings. Most readings are thus between two and three thousand words in length unless the especial significance or particular pertinence of a text of greater or, indeed, lesser length demands its inclusion. We hope readers will particularly appreciate the fact that a number of the readings are here appearing in English translation and hence English printed publication for the first time.
Thus this volume is about two theologians seeking to map the theological journey of a third practitioner of their shared craft. We hope this book will offer something different to the accounts of Ratzinger’s thought that appear in the standard textbooks, hagiographies and polemical critiques elsewhere alike. To our mind, nothing of the exact sort of this project, combining these particular areas of focus and treating these issues in the suggested manner, has been attempted thus far. In one of Ratzinger’s writings included here (in relation to the scriptural testimony to the emergence of the church), he advises us that in approaching a broad and intricate subject, ‘[W]hat is needed first of all is a kind of aerial photograph of the whole: when our gaze ranges over a larger expanse of terrain, it is also possible to find our bearings’. Such an aerial perspective, he continues, might furnish us with a ‘hermeneutic compass’ which points towards the ‘internal continuity’ of that scriptural testimony. We sincerely hope that the volume will provide an analogous aerial perspective and thus hermeneutic compass to the theological journey of Joseph Ratzinger and that it will demonstrate greater ‘internal continuity’ (by intention if not always in substantial terms) of his theology. This book might thus allow readers both to discern and to evaluate the developments, level of consistency, abiding character and tone of Ratzinger’s writings at various points of his career, as well as on the whole.
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