Verbum Vitae

Regula Fidei in the Light of Joseph Ratzinger’s Writings

2024-12-03T11:18:36+01:00

The study of the theological significance of regula fidei was embedded in Ratzinger’s theology of the word of God through its connection with Christology, pneumatology and ecclesiology. The Bavarian theologian derived his reflections on the word of God from the historical structure of revelation and the genesis of Scripture in the Church. The article begins with a characterisation of the concept of Tradition, of which the rule of faith is a constituent element. The perspective adopted has made it possible to identify the main areas of the theology of the Word of God in which the rule of faith plays a role. Subsequently, the article addressed the relationship of revelation to the oral (regula fidei) and written (Scripture) canons, the connection between the Creed and the Church’s liturgy, the relation of the oral and written canons, and the relevance of the Magisterium of the Church to the rule of faith. The theological approach to the rule of faith has also served to deepen reflection on the theology of the word of God, including the primacy of Scripture in the “one living organism of the word of God.”

Catholics and Lutherans on Scripture. A Proposal by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

2024-12-03T11:18:43+01:00

Luther emphasized the centrality of the word of God while formulating the principle of sola Scriptura, which later evolved. The Council of Trent and Vatican II present Scripture and tradition as complementary elements that originate from the same source, seeking their compatibility with the historical- critical method and the findings of contemporary exegesis. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s “hermeneutics of faith” goes in the same direction but with a personal development, as can be noticed in Jesus of Nazareth, published between 2007 and 2013. The article’s main contribution is the comprehensive description of Ratzinger’s ideas about interpreting Scripture. Along with the succinct summary of Ratzinger’s biblical thought, the article also presents some critical comments on his ideas and works in confrontation with the Protestant doctrine about reading and interpreting the Bible.

Introduction to Joseph Ratzinger’s Opera Omnia

2024-12-03T11:18:41+01:00

Joseph Ratzinger’s famous work Introduction to Christianity (Ratzinger 1968a, 1968b) presented the essence and central teachings of the Christian religion. In the case of the “Introduction to Joseph Ratzinger’s Opera Omnia,” it is similarly a question of identifying the essence of the theology of this contemporary Church Father. Without a doubt, what constitutes this principle is the priority of God, not only as Creator but also as Redeemer and Saviour. From this arises the second main dimension of Ratzinger’s theology, namely man as a gift and a person, who is properly realized through originating from God (Urbild) whose most perfect image (Bild) is Jesus Christ, and whose reflection (Abbild) is man. Thus, man can ultimately be fulfilled only in God, in eternal life with him. And therefore, man’s origin, justification, and fulfillment is in God. He is God’s unfolding imago: naturae, gratiae et gloriae. God’s creation is saved and transformed by Christ’s redemption. This fulfillment of God’s plan for creation is expressed in the person of Mary. To better understand the central thought of Ratzinger’s theology, the author of the text proposes eleven key issues in a certain confrontation with the Italian theologian Bruno Forte and the Polish journalist Krzysztof Tomasik.

Normative and Performative: The Authority of Scripture for Catholic Theology and Worship in the Thought of Pope Benedict XVI

2024-12-19T14:14:40+01:00

This essay addresses Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini, which explained authoritatively the three central principles of Catholic scriptural interpretation found in the Vatican II constitution Dei Verbum. In Verbum Domini, much of Benedict’s prior work as a private theologian gained a magisterial voice. Hence, this essay will engage both with Verbum Domini and Benedict’s previous writings. For Benedict, theology is more than information. When practiced as a “spiritual science,” theology is a real contact with the living Word. The authors of scripture are, accordingly, “normative theologians.” The real contact with the living Word contained in scripture is most profoundly mediated by the Church’s liturgy. The biblical Word’s liturgical setting is the source of its theological normativity. Thus, for Benedict, the performativity of the Word implies a unity between Scripture and liturgy, and the resultant normativity of the Word implies a unity between Scripture and theology. Without these unities, and the life of continuous conversion that flows from their recognition, there can be no theology in the true sense of the word. If these unities are recognized, however, the task of the theologian becomes letting God himself “speak”—to be the servant or handmaiden of revelation.

Joseph Ratzinger’s Christological-Pneumatological Exegesis of the Old Testament

2024-12-03T11:18:31+01:00

In his posthumously published collection of essays, Pope Benedict calls on the new generation of biblical scholars to develop methodological criteria for a “pneumatological exegesis” of the Old Testament. As a first step in this direction, the present article seeks to summarize Joseph Ratzinger’s/ Benedict XVI’s own theological reflection on the matter as we find it amply expounded both in his scholarly work and in his magisterium. First, Ratzinger’s understanding of revelation and of the place of both the Church and Scripture therein will be explained. Secondly, Ratzinger’s criteria for an interpretation of Scripture suited to revelation will be presented, with special emphasis on the way in which he both incorporates and goes beyond DV 12 with the help of systematic theology. In closing, Ratzinger’s own practice of Christological-pneumatological exegesis of the Old Testament is exemplified with an outline of his biblical Mariology.

Hermeneutical and Exegetical Assumptions in the Work "Jesus of Nazareth" by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Some Examples

2024-12-03T11:18:38+01:00

This article examines Joseph Ratzinger’s trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth, focusing especially on the first volume, shedding light on three of his hermeneutical assumptions. Firstly, there is a consideration of the understanding of the historical reliability of the Gospels. Secondly, there is a focus on the double hermeneutic of the parables, namely, the hermeneutic of history and that of faith. A critical review of Ratzinger’s analysis of three Lucan parables (Luke 10:25–37; 15:11–32; 16:19–31) leads to the proposal of a different reading which avoids the allegorical trap and values the argumentative mechanism of the fictitious stories, understood as frontier of the Gospel. Finally, holiness is touched on as an authentic interpretation of Sacred Scripture.

"The word of God is the foundation of everything." Historical-Critical Exegesis and Theological Hermeneutics of Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI

2024-12-03T11:18:33+01:00

Ratzinger’s reflections on biblical hermeneutics can be studied using different approaches. Three are the main ones: the ironical approach, a biographical one and, finally, a content-based one. Here, we will focus on the third approach, examining Ratzinger’s frequent comparison of the historical-critical method with the need to integrate it with a more specifically theological dimension of exegesis. Ratzinger has on several occasions traced a “history of the effects” of the historical method, also paying attention to its problematic aspects. In light of this history, the historical-critical method, while still indispensable, also proves to be insufficient. A careful consideration of its limits pushes towards a “self-critique of the method,” a “criticism of criticism ,” that highlights the faith-reason relationship implied and its philosophical presuppositions (the philosophical shift introduced by Kant). Rethinking biblical hermeneutics in the entirety of its dimensions (along the lines of what is proposed in Dei Verbum, no. 12) requires an adequate consideration of the properly theological depth of Scripture itself. This consideration involves, among other things, attention to the link between Scripture and Tradition and its relationship to the Church. In conclusion, three directions of research are indicated within Ratzinger’s theology and beyond its borders, in order to resume, extend and deepen some ideas that emerged from Ratzinger’s reflection on the problem in question.

"Deus Caritas Est". Benedict XVI’s First Encyclical and Its Johannine Foundation in the Exegesis of St. Augustine

2024-12-03T11:18:23+01:00

The article examines the Johannine foundation of the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est. It shows how Benedict XVI drew heavily on the Augustinian exegesis of the Johannine literature (with a particular focus on the First Epistle of John). The analysis follows the three fundamental elements that the Pope identifies at the beginning of the document, comparing the texts of the two authors (St. Augustine and Benedict XVI): the lexical clarification of eros and agape, the interaction between the love of God and the love of neighbor, and finally the pneumatological foundation of love. Then, starting from this last element, the article proposes to interpret the second part of the Encyclical as a pneumatological ecclesiology that the Pope presented to the Church at the beginning of his pontificate.

Church Tradition and Its Biblical Foundations in the Teaching of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. An Outline of Problems

2024-12-19T14:14:43+01:00

The Tradition of the Church has been a vital part of the Christian faith since the apostolic age. It has its tangible, historical basis in Scripture, but at the same time, it is a supernatural, living and ever-present reality of the Church. Because of its relevance to Christian life, tradition is also a frequently debated theological topic in Catholic and Protestant theological circles. As a theologian, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI created and offered the Church his concept of the Tradition of the Church, and that theological proposal is the subject of the present analyses. They aim to describe the sources, the essence and the constituent elements of the sacred Tradition of the Church in Ratzinger’s lectures with particular reference to its biblical basis. A methodologically correct way of dealing with the issue at hand is a historical and, at the same time, theological analysis, since the subject of the study is the Church as a supernatural reality of the community of believers past and present. This article first discusses Joseph Ratzinger’s publications on the Tradition of the Church, proceeding afterwards to present the essential elements of his understanding of Tradition and, finally, describing its biblical foundations. For Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, Tradition is the constant actualisation of Jesus’ presence in the Church, the memory of him, but also the living experience of salvation.

Mutuality of Scripture, Metaphysics and Dogmatics. Basic Hermeneutical Insight in Pope Benedict XVI "Jesus of Nazareth"

2024-12-19T14:14:45+01:00

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.

Benedict XVI’s Interpretation of the Psalms

2024-12-20T20:42:26+01:00

This article aims to analyze the way Pope Benedict XVI quotes and interprets biblical psalms. In the introductory section, the author presents statistics and the ways in which Benedict XVI quotes Book of Psalms, and then offers a general, introductory look at psalms and their analysis in papal catechesis. In subsequent sections of the article, the author focuses on the pope’s historical-critical exegesis and linguistic analyses of the psalms, followed by the pope’s Christological, ecclesiological, Mariological, and actualizing reading of the Psalms. In the concluding section, the author discusses the relationship of the psalms to prayer, the pope’s references to the Fathers of the Church and recalls Benedict XVI’s most personal statements on the Psalms.

Aaron Pidel. The Inspiration and Truth of Scripture: Testing the Ratzinger Paradigm (Verbum Domini; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press 2023)

2024-12-03T11:18:28+01:00

Book review: Aaron Pidel. The Inspiration and Truth of Scripture: Testing the Ratzinger Paradigm (Verbum Domini; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press 2023). Pp. 278. 34,95 $. ISBN 978-0-8132-3687-2.

Biblia Benedicti. Hermeneutical and Exegetical Legacy of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

2024-12-16T23:41:01+01:00