The Ratzinger Reader: Mapping a Theological Journey

A fascinating and insightful volume collecting together the key writings of Joseph Ratzinger, some of them yet untranslated, from his youthful and more progressive writings, to his ’transition period’ following his disillusionment with the aftermath of Vatican II, to his time as Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith down to 2005. The emphasis will be upon Joseph Ratzinger as ’private theologian’, his many writings released in a personal capacity for such will chart the formation of and comment upon the official statements and texts released under his name in a more informative fashion than the simple inclusion of the formulaic ’official texts’ themselves.

Following a section providing insight into the fundamental and systematic theological background and development of Joseph Ratzinger’s thought, further thematic sections will also be included, for example, Joseph Ratzinger’s writings on Ecclesiology, on Theology and the Role of Theologians, on the Eucharist, on Religious Pluralism, on Sacramental Theology, Ecumenism, on Truth, on the Contemporary Historical Era, on Magisterium and on Faith Morals etc.

The volume will open with an introductory essay charting the life and career, the achievements of and the controversies surrounding the new pope. Each reading will be prefaced by a brief introduction to its context and themes and will be followed by recommended further reading on its respective subject matter.

Joseph Ratzinger was Professor of theology at Munich and Regensburg before becoming head of the Congreation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic Church. He was elected Pope taking the name Benedict XVI. in 2005. Lieven Boeve is professor of fundamental theology at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), where he currently also serves as Dean of the Faculty and as the co-ordinator of the Research Group Theology in a Postmodern Context. His research concerns theological epistemology, philosophical theology, truth in faith and theology, tradition development and hermeneutics. He is the author of Interrupting Tradition. An Essay on Christian Faith in a Postmodern Context (2003) and God Interrupts History. Theology in a Time of Upheaval (2007). He has co-edited various volumes, of which the most recent are: Augustine and Postmodern Thought: A New Alliance against Modernity? (2009) and Orthodoxy: Process and Product (2009). From 2005 till 2009 he served as president of the European Society for Catholic Theology.

Gerard Mannion is Director of the Centre for Catholic Thought and Culture and Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, USA.