Sandro Magister takes note of the newly released volume in Joseph Raztinger's Collected Works, in which he also provides an English translation of Benedict XVI's Preface to the volume (previous translated and posted in a comprehensive post about the book release on this thread - see preceding page).
A newly published work
by Joseph Ratzinger
from 54 years ago
remains very relevant
ROME, September 18, 2009 – The publication in German of Joseph Ratzinger's "opera omnia" is moving forward fast. The first of the sixteen volumes planned came out less than a year ago. The second was presented to its author on Sunday, September 13, at Castel Gandolfo. A third will come out in November.
Interest in the first volume – properly speaking, the eleventh volume in the general outline – was increased by the author's desire to republish first his writings on the liturgy, which he calls "the central activity of my life."
The interest of this second volume lies, instead, in the fact that it finally makes public a text by Ratzinger that until now had never been published in its entirety: the thesis that he presented in 1955 in order to be allowed teach theology in the German universities.
After his first studies on Saint Augustine, it was suggested to the young theologian Ratzinger that he research the most Augustinian of the medieval theologians, the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, and in particular, his ideas concerning divine revelation and the theology of history.
Ratzinger dug deep in his research. And he discovered that in Bonaventure, there is a strong connection with the vision of Joachim of Fiore, the Franciscan who had prophesied the imminent advent of a third age after those of the Father and the Son, an age of the Spirit, with a renewed and entirely "spiritual" Church, poor, reconciled with Greeks and Jews, in a world restored to peace.
One of his examiners, professor Michael Schmaus, didn't like the thesis. But Ratzinger avoided rejection by resubmitting only the second part of his text, which had not received any objections.
In later years, he resolved to produce a new and updated publication of the entire thesis, but was unable to do so. As cardinal, he resolved to work on it in his retirement. But then he was elected pPpe, and the project was inevitably scrapped.
Republished now in its original and complete version, the thesis seems to have been superseded here and there by later studies. Ratzinger realizes that. But he maintains that "the question of the essence of Revelation, which is the theme of the book, still has urgency today, perhaps even more so than in the past."
In reading his preface to this second volume of the "opera omnia", it can be grasped that Benedict XVI still sees as relevant the challenge that Bonaventure had to confront as superior general of the Franciscan order: the "dramatic tension between the 'realists', who wanted to make use of the legacy of Saint Francis according to the concrete possibilities of the life of the order as it had been handed down, and the 'spiritualists', who instead focused on the radical novelty of a new historical period."
Henri De Lubac, one of the greatest Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, dedicated an imposing two-volume essay to what he called "the intellectual posterity of Joachim of Fiore."
In the judgment of De Lubac, Joachim's vision – the friar "endowed with prophetic spirit" whom Dante placed in Paradise – has spanned the centuries and continues to influence a large portion of today's culture, including Catholic culture: a culture that dreams of "a new Church in which love must replace the law."
The exact opposite [?????] of that
Caritas in Veritate which provides the title for Benedict XVI's latest encyclical, and informs his entire magisterium.
[Excuse me, but I fail to see how Caritas in veritate - the concept of 'love in truth' - can be 'the exact opposite' of 'love must replace the law' - which in the statement quoted by Magister from De Lubac, must refer to generic 'law' not God's 'Law'! (I had to go back and check the Italian original - and that's exactly what Magister wrote: 'the exact opposite... of Caritas in veritate'. !)
I am sure De Lubac expressed his formulation in a proper context, since traditionally, God's Law - the Commandments - can be reduced to one word, love: love of God and love of fellowmen. Love is the Law. A love that is always in the context of truth. ]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/09/2009 12:49]