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Aidan Nichols' timely book is the first full-scale investigation of Joseph Ratzinger's theology, from the 1950s to the present day. It presents a chronological account of the development of Ratzinger's writing which reflects a wide range of historical and theoretical interests. A comprehensive introduction to a figure who is in his own right, quite apart from his significance in the politics of the Church, a major German Catholic theologian of the twentieth century. This new edition provides amplifies existing chapters by reference to books by Ratzinger between 1986/1987 and his election as Pope in 2005, and includes two new chapters - Judaism, Islam and other religions, and the secularization and future of Europe.
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The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI New Edition The Thou ht of Pope Bene ict XVI New Edition An Introduction to the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger by Aidan Nichols OP ·" burns &.oates Published by Burns & Oates A Continuum imprint The Tower Building, 1 1 York Road, London SEl 7NX 80 M aide n Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Copyright © Aidan Nichols OP, 2007 Aidan Nichols OP has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk EISBN 978-0-86012-421-4 To the memory of my parents Preface to the Second Edition T inger, he election of Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XV I rendered desirable a republication of my study The Theology of Joseph Ratz which Burns & Oates reprinted in 2005 under the title The Thought of Benedict XVI. I allowed this work to reappear in the bookshops owing not only to the public interest in the new Pope and the importance of an accurate representation of his theological thinking in its historical development, but also because I believed that, in major essentials, the thought of the future Pope Benedict was, by the late 1980s, already clear. At the same time, it was obviously necessary that in due course I should bring this work up to date by taking into consideration the books and collections of articles he has written in the twenty years that separated the original publication - which coincided with his immensely successful visit to Cambridge in 1988 - from the events of 2005 when he succeeded Pope John Paul II as bishop of Rome and universal pastor of the Catholic Church. If there is a single most prominent feature in the new material it would be the sharpening of his critique of relativism and constructivism in all domains. He was not the only observer of the Western scene who noted that, by the start of the new millennium, the human faculty for registering comprehensive truth (not simply supernatural but even natural) was at a discount. I thank Philip Law of Clark's for commissioning this revision, which consists in the addition of a compendious chapter on the writings of 19872005 under the title 'The Candidate', and a corresponding supplementation of the bibliography. Naturally enough, I have also added some words to the Conclusion. I am indebted to Father Joseph Augustine Di Noia, OP of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for supplying me with the latest edition of the 'Joseph Kardinal Ratzinger Bibliographie'. I am also grateful to Haaris Naqvi of Clark's for the acquisition of several of the Pope's foreign-language works not yet in English