Jesus of Nazareth | Pope Benedict XVI

Jesus of Nazareth | Pope Benedict XVI | So far so good...

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Jesus of Nazareth

	Jesus of Nazareth Pope Benedict XVI Doubleday, 2007 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 154 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Wonderful!!!!!!!

Jesus of Nazareth (Hardcover) by Pope Benedict XVI is a wonderful book, I must say I have not felt such a spiritual impact, from a book (besides the Bible), as this one, since I read R. A Torry's book called, the person and work of the Holy spirit. I find myself, reading a paragraph and then rereading it again and again, to get the full impact. The Pope's witting is very deep, very scholarly but also attainable to us lay people, and very much filled with the Love of Christ. Pope Benedict presents to us the person of Jesus, from His Baptism to the transfiguration, in both a Spiritual and a Historical context. The Pope discusses Jesus Baptism, The Sermon on the Mount, the LORD'S Prayer, Jesus as Symbol (The Lamb Of God, The Good Shepard, The Sheep Gate, Jacobs Latter, Water, Wine, Bread etc.,) The Pope Shows us who Jesus is, the Great I Am (YHWH) God in a Human Body. He shows us the Who, What, Ware, and then Why it matters for all of us. I would highly recommend Jesus of Nazareth for everyone.

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So far so good...

With an analytical personality, I appreciate having things explained in detail. Growing up Roman Catholic, I gained my faith without a lot of biblical explanations. The bible studies that I had participated in did very little to satisfy my hunger for explanations.

This book is like having Pope Benedict in the room with you at a bible study. It goes through details of the scriptures and cross references old & new testament information along with putting things in historical and cultural perspective. It is excellent! It will satisfy the analytical person's thirst for this knowledge. It really enlightens why Christians have the "new" testament - a new "Torah", if you will.

Please keep in mind that, as a slow reader, I get a couple of pages in per night and already know that this book will need to be read multiple times.

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Catholic Philosophy

Jesus of Nazareth is a wonderful tour de force by the Pope who explains how the teachings of Christ are exemplified by his life, works and words.

Intellectually inspiring.

B16 does it again!

How cool to have a Pope who is also one of the world's greatest theologians! His presentation of Jesus Christ is both scholarly and spiritual. Not an easy read, but well worth the trouble.

Pope Benedict XVI Confronts Historical-Critical Scholars

This +374-page book merits reading whether one agrees or disagrees with Pope Benedict's Weltanschauung or Christusbild. Jesus of Nazareth is the first book written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his role as Pope Benedict XVI. His endeavor in this work is "to restore" the "true identity" of the Jesus that one putatively can discover in the four NT Gospels. Pope Benedict does not approach the Gospels from a scientific, historical or critical perspective. Moreover, it is clear that his theology drives much of his quest for the "true identity" of Jesus. The book is what one would expect from the soi-disant "Vicar of Christ." Pope Benedict portrays Jesus as God in the flesh and suggests that Christ made statements to that effect. He discusses the baptism of Jesus, the temptation of Jesus, his message concerning the Gospel and Kingdom of God, the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer, the Disciples of Jesus, the Lord's parables, the primary images of John's Gospel, Two Milestones of Jesus' Way and Jesus' own sayings regarding his identity.

To Pope Benedict's credit, he does not seem to make a hard and fast distinction between the Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ of Faith. While NT scholars like to categorize the "Son of Man" sayings found in the Gospels into three distinct categories (sayings concerning the coming Son of Man, sayings regarding the earthly work of the Son of Man, and the suffering and resurrected Son of Man), Benedict prefers to view the Son of Man sayings from a synthetic or holistic perspective. Taking exception with the common historical-critical tack, Benedict contends: "No, the greatness, the dramatic newness [of Jesus], comes directly from Jesus; within the faith and life of the community it is further developed, but not created" (page 324). And, on this point, Pope Benedict and I concur. It is madness to construct a conceptual dichotomy between Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ of faith. The hypotheses set forth by NT scholars, who argue for a Jesus/Christ dichotomy, are less than convincing and highly speculative. Benedict is spot on in his analysis of this aspect of NT studies.

But there are many places where I take exception to the book Jesus of Nazareth. I fault the methodology of the work for not being rigorous enough. Furthermore, I utterly disagree with what the Pope says about the "I am" sayings of Jesus (John 8:58). For example, Exodus 3:14 supposedly lends support to the Pope's interpretation of John 8:58. Yet, how does he handle this verse in his book? The answer is that he treats this passage in an extremely laconic way. The Pope writes: "The manifold interpretations of this statement ['I am who I am' in Exodus 3:14] need not occupy us here" (page 347). Well, these diverse interpretations should occupy the writer since he draws such sweeping conclusions from the Johannine text and "I Am" passages found in the so-called Deutero-Isaiah.

I am not picking on how the Pope just handles one verse: this kind of approach to Scripture appears throughout the entire book. To be fair, I know that books usually have certain foci and intended audiences. Nonetheless, when broad and sweeping universal claims are made, these claims merit careful attention to detail and strong evidence. But despite my criticisms of his work, I still found Jesus of Nazareth quite accessible and somewhat enjoyable. It is a recommended read, as far as I am concerned.

Edgar Foster

Author of Angelomorphic Christology and the Exegesis of Psalm 8:5 in Tertullian's Adversus Praxean: An Examination of Tertullian's Reluctance to Attribute Angelic Properties to the Son of God

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