Jesus of Nazareth

published	May 15th 2007 by Doubleday
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0385523416 (isbn13: 9780385523417)
pages	400
description	“This book is… my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord.’” —Benedict XVI In this bold, momentous work...more [close] “This book is… my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord.’” —Benedict XVI In this bold, momentous work, the pope—in his first book written as Benedict XVI—seeks to salvage the person of Jesus from recent “popular” depictions and to restore Jesus’ true identity as discovered in the Gospels. Through his brilliance as a theologian and his personal conviction as a believer, the pope shares a rich, compelling, flesh-and-blood portrait of Jesus and incites us to encounter, face-to-face, the central figure of the Christian faith. From Jesus of Nazareth… “the great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: But what has Jesus really brought, then, if he has not brought world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God! He has brought the God who once gradually unveiled his countenance first to Abraham, then to Moses and the prophets, and then in the wisdom literature—the God who showed his face only in Israel, even though he was also honored among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the peoples of the earth. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about where we are going and where we come from: faith, hope, and love.” [close]
date added	02-09-07 edit book

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Ryan rated it:

06/03/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Theoligians.

This is in fact only the first volume of this multi-volume book that the current Pope is working on “in every free moment” of his papal schedule. In this volume, Ratzinger analyzes literature and theory about the life of Jesus from the baptism to the Transfiguration. Part 2 of the book will include the stories of birth and childhood, and, using Ratzinger’s style, perhaps it can be inferred that there will also potentially be chapters or even another full volume on the Passion and Resurrect...more This is in fact only the first volume of this multi-volume book that the current Pope is working on “in every free moment” of his papal schedule. In this volume, Ratzinger analyzes literature and theory about the life of Jesus from the baptism to the Transfiguration. Part 2 of the book will include the stories of birth and childhood, and, using Ratzinger’s style, perhaps it can be inferred that there will also potentially be chapters or even another full volume on the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.

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In the forward of this volume, Ratzinger uses some Latin flash to indicate that this book will explore some of non-religious historical research on the life of Jesus: “The factum historicum (historical fact) is not an interchangeable symbolic cipher for biblical faith, but the foundation on which it stands.”

But then hidden away a lone paragraph at the beginning of the bibliography he admits that his book “presupposes historical-critical exigesis and makes use of its findings, but it seeks to transcend this method and to arrive at a genuinely theological interpretation of the scriptural texts.”

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“The Jesus of the Fourth Gospel and the Jesus of the synoptics is one and the same: the true ‘historical’ Jesus.” (page 111)

Ok, glad that’s settled. But, why are the various gospels (synoptics = Matthew, Mark, and Luke; that of John is the ‘Fourth’ gospel) so different from each other? Well, citing a case where a particular idea is described in a certain way by Matthew, but in less detail by Mark and Luke, the Pope explains that probably after God inspired them what to write, maybe Mark and Luke decided to leave out some of the details God have given them, to make sure that these details would not “be abused.” And, perhaps John just forgot that part, I guess, Ratzinger doesn’t mention that detail.

And, while this book is not entirely uninteresting or without use, it is a huge disappointment that in all of its 355pages of research and history of Jesus, it does not manage to utter a single word on how the history and development of the Bible affects any of the image, memory, or reality of Jesus. (He attempts to describe history without citing history.) Though leaving the gaps of consistency among the gospels to just a cursory explanation, he does not mention at all how the books of the Bible, written through the course of at least 3,500 years, were chosen (or recognized, to put it more piously). He explains that Mark and Luke may have used their better judgment to amend the word of God but he does not mention why the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Thomas (which would have to lend some direct insight to the life of Jesus!) were lost or suppressed by the church.

After seeing how so many fans of the book here on Goodreads do not actually finish reading the book, I see how the Pope comes true on his promise made in the Foreward (then better explained under the bibliography) to transcend history to make the book interesting to be read (all the way through) only by serious theologians.
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