After two thousand years can we still believe in the picture of Jesus that the Gospels have handed down to us? And what is the relationship between Jesus and the Church?
These all-important issues are addressed by Joseph Ratzinger in a new publication, the first volume of which, entitled Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, is scheduled for a March release in Italian by the Rizzoli publishing house, and in German by Herder Verlag; translations in the world’s major languages will then promptly follow.
In the preface, signed, ‘Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI’, the Pope explains that he has noticed for decades a growing scholarly distinction between the ‘historical Jesus’ and the ‘Christ of Faith’, a distinction that many Christians now accept as accurate. But, the Holy Father argues, if the human Jesus was totally different from the Jesus depicted in the Gospels and proclaimed by the Church, what does it mean to have faith in Him?
“Such a situation is tragic for the faith,” writes Benedict XVI, “because it makes its authentic point of reference uncertain: intimate friendship with Jesus, from whom everything depends, is debated and runs the risk of becoming useless…”
Joseph Ratzinger writes in the preface of the first volume that while he relies on modern scholarly Biblical criticism and historical research, he “wanted to attempt to present the Jesus of the Gospels as the true Jesus, as the ‘historic Jesus’ in the true sense of the expression”.
Pope Benedict explained that he began the book during his 2003 summer vacation, giving the final form to the first four chapters in the summer of 2004. “After my election to the Episcopal See of Rome,” the Pope said, “I used all of my free moments to work on it,” and “because I do not know how much time and how much strength I will still be given, I have decided to publish the first ten chapters,” as volume one of Jesus of Nazareth.
It is a great misfortune indeed for any historical personality to be the subject of universal hatred. However, for someone wishing to be really understood by posterity, there is something far worse than this, and that is to be the subject of universal love and admiration. Now, this is precisely what has happened to Jesus of Nazareth. For the last 250 years Jesus has been paraded as ‘a man for all seasons’. He has been portrayed as a revolutionary, a pacifist, an anarchist, a communist, a psychoanalyst, an environmentalist, an anti-Semite, and even as an anti-Christian!
Joseph Ratzinger is right – Christianity is in dire straits if the face of the One who founded it has been blurred, and it is quite natural for a Pope who is also a great theologian to employ all his knowledge and competence in a strenuous defence of all those non-negotiable pillars of our faith – those elements that make it accessible to the simplest of souls. In doing so, the Holy Father challenges the learned, or those who regard themselves as such, to put their image of Jesus to the test, to check if this image really corresponds to the original handed down to us through the Gospels.
Announcing the publication last November, the director of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, said, “The Pope says clearly, with his usual simplicity and humility, that this is not a ‘magisterial act’, but a fruit of his personal research and, as such, can be freely discussed and critiqued. It is not a long encyclical, but a personal presentation of the figure of Jesus by the theologian Joseph Ratzinger”.
Benedict XVI knows that the Bishop of Rome is not master, but servant of the truth of Jesus Christ, and candidly confesses that this book is the fruit of his personal search for the face of the Lord. With such a preamble, how can anyone not give credit to this forthcoming publication?
Updated on October 06 2016