Mutuality of Scripture, Metaphysics and Dogmatics. Basic Hermeneutical Insight in Pope Benedict XVI "Jesus of Nazareth"
Robert Józef Woźniak
Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-3419-1514
Abstract
The subject of this article is the Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth. Central to the analysis is an attempt to reconstruct the place and role of metaphysics in the Pope’s analysis and, more broadly, in his understanding of biblical hermeneutics. One of the central ambitions of our author was to develop an integral method of reading and understanding Scripture, in which historicalcritical, metaphysical and dogmatic themes presuppose and complement each other. The article first examines the modalities of the appearance of metaphysical threads in Benedict XVI’s meditations, then analyzes his understanding of prayer in a metaphysical key, and finally sketches the concept of a new human being made possible by the work of Jesus and needing metaphysical categories to be fully described. Thus, it turns out that Ratzinger was able to show a truly biblical metaphysics in Jesus of Nazareth and prove that metaphysical thinking is not at odds with the assumptions of the historical-critical method, if the latter, of course, is not understood in a reductionist manner and in accordance with modern prejudices. In this way, I argue, Ratzinger sketches in his trilogy an integral theological method for reading the biblical text and ultimately synthesizes the biblical, metaphysical and dogmatic approaches.
Keywords:
Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, exegesis, Christology, metaphysics, dogmatics, methodology, hermeneuticsReferences
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Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków
Robert J. Woźniak (b. 1974), presbyter of the Archdiocese of Cracow, PhD in dogmatic theology, professor at the Pontifical University of John Paull II in Cracow, works in the Department of Theological Anthropology. He received his doctorate in dogmatic theology in 2005 from the University of Navarra in Pamplona. He had academic stints at Fordham University in New York and Gregorian University in Rome. He has taught at the Facultad de Teología Pontificia i Civil in Lima, Peru. He is vice president of the Polish Society of Dogmatic Theologians, was editor-in-chief of Theological Research, and currently edits two collections of theological books: Theological Thought (WAM) and Sapientia (Bratni Zew). He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology at the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Philosophy of Science Section at the PAU. He works mainly on Trinitarian theology, the relationship between theology and philosophy, and the theological themes of postmodernism. In 2008, he received the Ergo Hestia and Znak Award named after Rev. J. Tischner for his book The Future, Theology, Society (WAM, Kraków 2007). He has also published, among others, Primitas et plenitudo. Dios Padre en la teología trinitaria de San Buenaventura (Eunsa, Pamplona 2007), Dogma and Method. An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Research in Dogmatic Theology (Kraków: WAM 2021; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2024), and Working on Dogma. On the Road to the Renewal of Dogmatic Theology (Kraków: WAM 2022).
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3419-1514
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