Review Article:
Jesus of Nazareth
Pope Benedict XVI and Joseph Ratzinger.
Jesus of Nazareth. NY: Doubleday, 2007.
by Lode Wostyn
Book
reviews of Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth are written with
caution and reverence. This is a book written by the Pope! Yet, Pope Benedict
himself tells his readers, “This book is in no way an exercise of magisterium,
but solely an expression of my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord.’
Everyone is free, then, to contradict me. I would only ask my readers for that
initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding” (xxiii-xxiv). My
goodwill made me buy and read the book. In this same spirit, I do not intend to
contradict the book, but to situate it within the development of Christology
after Vatican II. I have described this development in other studies; hence, I
decided to work with a broad outline, without repeating the references mentioned
in them.1 In my review, I will use the name Ratzinger because it is
suggested in the way we have to treat the book: “not as an exercise of
magisterium but as a personal search.”
