Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has been the most visible member of the Catholic clergy in the world second only to Pope John Paul II. His status as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made him one of the most discussed churchmen in recent history. On the occasion of Ratzingers's seventy-fifth birthday, his former students selected essays, lectures, letters, and conferences that Ratzinger has written in recent years- writing that they feel best represents his position on issues of theology, the modern world, secularism, non-Christian religious, and other key topics of the Catholic Church. This book, characterized by Ratzinger's concisely reasoned style, is an invaluable resource to those who wish to understand the modern Church and the thinking of Pope Benedict XVI, as well as a treasured volume for those who are students of Ratzinger's theology.

Characterised by Ratzinger's concisely reasoned style it helps those who wish to understand the modern Church and the thinking of Pope Benedict XVI.

What comes to mind when you hear the term "primacy of Christ"? Perhaps that Jesus is number one, or that he is the Lord of the universe? Using the wealth of our tradition on Christ's primacy, this book compels us to pause and search the profound depths of our basic Christian claim on the universal preeminence of Christ. Upholding the writings of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI as exemplary representation of how the early Christian awareness of Christ's primacy helps us to interpret the present age, this book displays a symphonic harmony between our ancient Christian heritage and the ongoing conversations about the authentic interpretation of Scripture, the human person, the last things, and the church. Central to this symphonic harmony of our tradition is the use of analogy whereby the incarnation helps us to better understand the similarity between the created things and the mystery of God. To better understand how Ratzinger uses the writings of the fathers of the church to draw us more deeply into the depths of Christ is what the correctives offered to some scholars in this book intends to accomplish. What emerges is the ecumenical significance of Joseph Ratzinger's contribution to the modern debate on analogy of being (analogia entis), identifying Christ's primacy as the point of synthesis between analogia entis and analogia fidei.

Most contemporary theologies of Holy Orders consider priesthood mainly in its diocesan context and most contemporary theologies of religious life do not consider how ordained ministry functions when it is internal rather than external to religious life. Understanding the Religious Priesthood provides a history and theology of religious priesthood that contributes to our understanding of this vocation’s identity and mission. It uncovers what religious priesthood shares with diocesan priesthood and non-ordained religious life and what makes it different from both those other vocations. Christian Raab begins by tracing the history of religious priesthood from its origins in the early Church to the eve of the Second Vatican Council. He demonstrates that religious priests often faced questions about how to reconcile their two callings, but that they also provided answers in their theologies and spiritualities of priesthood and religious life. Meanwhile, they made key contributions to the Church’s life and mission. Raab then investigates the teachings of the Second Vatican Council on priesthood and religious life. Observing that the Council presented priesthood according to a diocesan typology and presented religious life without sacerdotal associations, he argues that the lack of imagery of religious priesthood contributed to a post-conciliar vocational identity crisis among religious priests. He then seeks to remedy this lacuna by appealing to the biblical images for religious priesthood Hans Urs von Balthasar offered in his theology of vocations. Raab argues that Balthasar’s imagery is a promising way forward for understanding the identity and mission of religious priesthood. In a final part, Raab provides a substantial theological articulation of religious priesthood which illuminates its liturgical signification, ecclesial mediation and mission, and ministerial identity. Here he draws not only from Balthasar but also from Pope John Paul II, Yves Congar, Jean-Marie Tillard, Brian Daley, and Guy Mansini to construct his profile.

The Holy Spirit who worked on the first Christian Pentecost continues to work in the church and the world today. This being so, the field of pneumatology--the theology of the Holy Spirit--should pique the interest of both the "average" Christian and the academic theologian, perhaps more than it has in recent times. This collection of chapters brings pneumatology into conversation with a wide variety of disciplines, including scripture, patristic and medieval theology, and history. The result is a scholarly monograph that enriches both pneumatology and the fields with which each contributor engages. Furthermore, with its attention on the work of the Spirit in the sacraments and the life of the church, Pneumatology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium will help pastors and catechists in their ministries to understand more deeply the riches of the theology of the Third Person of the Trinity.

How ought the church respond to the rise of a post-Christian secular age? Should it retreat? What is the mission of the church in this context? Joseph Ratzinger’s eucharistic ecclesiology provides a model for living the relation between communion and mission, a model that provides a sound image for conceiving of and imagining the church’s engagement with modernity and the embodiment of missionary communion. Ratzinger’s vision, deeply influenced by St. Benedict’s and St. Augustine’s responses to the problems of their day, offers a theologically and liturgically grounded vision of missionary communion that transcends politics. In light of our creation by, from, and for the triune God, authentic responses to the present dis-integration of reason and community require the witness and invitation of the church as a community for the world. Ratzinger argues that right worship can and does habituate Christians and equip churches to respond to the existential questions confronting modern persons, many of whom seem partially paralyzed by the anxieties of life without truth and communion. Might the witness of communion for mission lived by the new ecclesial movements, especially the Focolare, offer an example of how Ratzinger’s creative minorities can successfully evangelize this secular age?

This book engages the theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI in dialogue with African Catholic theological concerns and challenges. After an Introduction by Matthew Levering arguing that African Catholic theology is an important resource for the whole Church, the book contains ten chapters by African and non-African Catholic theologians. Paulinus Odozor investigates whether and, if so, how the God of Jesus Christ stands in continuity with the God known to African Traditional Religions. Paul Ọlátúbọsún Àdajà addresses faith and reason in light of the current African anthropological crisis. Tegha Nji and Valery Akoh connect Ratzinger’s idea of “pro-existence” with traditional African understandings of solidarity. Jacob Phillips compares the theologies of Robert Cardinal Sarah and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Dennis Kasule examines the requirements of a New Evangelization for Africa, in light of the case of Uganda. Joseph Lugalambi proposes that the Catholic liturgies of Africa are in need of reform. Mary-Reginald N. Anibueze explores the Eucharist as a socio-communitarian event. Emery de Gaál reflects upon Ratzinger/Benedict’s theology of inculturation. Joseph Ogbonnaya treats Caritas in Veritate with a focus upon the case of Nigeria. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai meditates upon Ratzinger’s understanding of political power.

The Dialogue of Love is written from the perspective of an evangelical Catholic Ecumenist. Raised Catholic, but having responded to the Gospel at L'Abri Fellowship in 1970, Eduardo J. Echeverria's journey took the paths of Reformed and then Anglo-Catholic Christianity on his way back to full communion with the Catholic Church in 1992. Engaging in ecumenical conversation as a committed Roman Catholic whose views have been shaped by, among others, Romano Guardini, John Paul II, and Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), the author discusses in an articulate, bracing, and constructive manner, the positions of representative thinkers in the Dutch neo-Calvinist tradition of Reformed Christianity: Herman Bavinck, G. C. Berkouwer, and Herman Dooyeweerd. Fundamental issues of ecclesiology, meaning and truth, sacramental theology, the relation between the Church and the world, nature and grace, and issues on the relation of faith and reason are examined with the aim of achieving clarification and understanding. Readers will experience ecumenical "Dialogue . . . not simply [as] an exchange of ideas," but also as "an 'exchange of gifts'," indeed, "a dialogue of love" (John Paul II).

The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology is a unique scholarly resource for the study of the Christian Church as we find it in the Bible, in history and today. As the scholarly study of how we understand the Christian Church's identity and mission, ecclesiology is at the centre of today's theological research, reflection, and debate. Ecclesiology is the theological driver of the ecumenical movement. The main focus of the intense ecumenical engagement and dialogue of the past half-century has been ecclesiological and this is the area where the most intractable differences remain to be tackled Ecclesiology investigates the Church's manifold self-understanding in relation to a number of areas: the origins, structures, authority, doctrine, ministry, sacraments, unity, diversity, and mission of the Church, including its relation to the state and to society and culture. The sources of ecclesiological reflection are the Bible (interpreted in the light of scholarly research), Church history and the wealth of the Christian theological tradition, together with the information and insights that emerge from other relevant academic disciplines. This Handbook considers the biblical resources, historical development, and contemporary initiatives in ecclesiology. It offers invaluable and comprehensive guide to understanding the Church.

It is well known that the Western university gradually evolved from the monastic stadium via the cathedral schools of the twelfth century to become the remarkably vigorous and interdisciplinary European institutions of higher learning that transformed Christian intellectual culture in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is equally well known that subsequent disciplinary developments in higher education, including the founding and flourishing of many of the most prestigious of North American universities, owe equally to the Protestant and perhaps particularly Calvinist influence. But that the secularized modern university that descended from these developments is now in something of an identity crisis is becoming widely – and often awkwardly – apparent.The reason most often given for the crisis is our general failure to produce a morally or spiritually persuasive substitute for the authority that undergirded the intellectual culture of our predecessors. This is frequently also a reason for the discomfort many experience in trying to address the problem, for it requires an acknowledgement, at least, that the secularization hypothesis has proven inadequate as a basis for the sustaining of coherence and general intelligibility in the university curriculum. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the disciplines of biblical studies and theology, which once were the anchor or common point of reference for theological thought, but which are now both marginalized in the curriculum and internally divided as to meaning and purpose, even where the Church itself is concerned.In this final volume of the Scripture and Hermeneutic Series, a group of distinguished scholars have sought to understand the role of the Bible in relation to the disciplines in a fresh way. Offered in a spirit of humility and experimentally, the essays here consider the historic role of the Bible in the university, the status of theological reflection regarding Scripture among the disciplines today, the special role of Scripture in the development of law, the humanities and social sciences, and finally, the way the Bible speaks to issues of academic freedom, intellectual tolerance, and religious liberty. Contributors Include:Dallas WillardWilliam AbrahamAl WoltersScott HahnGlenn OlsenRobert C. RobertsByron JohnsonRobert Cochran, Jr.David I. SmithJohn SullivanRobert LundinC. Stephen EvansDavid Lyle Jeffrey