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American publishers of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, have now opened a website
www.ignatius.com/promotions/jesus-of-nazareth/index.htm
for JESUS OF NAZARETH, Vol. II, which goes on sale in two weeks.
JON-II: A preview
Jesus of Nazareth – Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection is the follow-up to Pope Benedict XVI's best-selling book,
Jesus Of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration.
In this new work, Benedict challenges readers to contemplate the meaning and impact of Jesus's life. He looks at the days from Jesus's arrival in Jerusalem — to the herald of followers — to his suffering and death a few days later . . . and his resurrection and appearances to his apostles and disciples for another 40 days.
The Holy Father tackles many of history's most volatile questions about the final week of Jesus' earthly life:
- Who killed Jesus?
- Was Jesus a political revolutionary?
- Was he the Messiah, the Son of God?
- What did Jesus teach about the end of the world?
- Did Jesus establish a community of disciples — the Church — to continue his work?
- How did Jesus interpret his death?
- What does the evidence tell us about Jesus's ultimate fate?
- Did he really rise from the dead?
- Did the early Christians believe Jesus would return immediately?
Benedict answers those questions and more. The figure of Jesus that emerges from this study is of someone who is both divine and human; God's self-disclosure in his Son, who tells us about God but also about ourselves.
"It’s clear that what interests the Holy Father is helping people to know and love someone whom he knows and loves," said Ignatius Press Founder and Publisher Fr. Joseph Fessio. "But he does this as a scholar. This book is a bright star in the constellation of books about Jesus."
The following are endorsements of the book by early reviewers:
This theological masterpiece courageously confronts head-on two centuries of historical exegesis and establishes a fresh way of reading the Gospels as both biography and theology in a coherent way.
The author explains, "I set out to discover the real Jesus, on the basis of whom something like a Christology from below would then become possible. The quest for the historical Jesus, as conducted in mainstream critical exegesis in accordance with its hermeneutical presuppositions, lacks sufficient content to exert any significant historical impact. It is focused too much on the past for it to make possible a personal relationship with Jesus."
Here we find a compelling model for the presentation of the life of holy rabbi, Hillel or Aqiba, in the same context as we account for the life of Jesus".
- Jacob Neusner
Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism
Senior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter sought to explain to the assembled multitude what God had done through Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and risen.
Peter's successor, Benedict XVI, here undertakes the same urgent task, in fruitful dialogue with the historical-critical biblical scholarship that dominates contemporary academic study of Jesus. Charting the path of the new evangelization, Pope Benedict XVI uncovers for us the living source of Peter's evangelizing mission: Jesus, in whom God gives hope to the world.
- Matthew Levering, PhD
Co-Editor, Nova et Vetera, and
Co-Director, Center for Catholic-Evangelical Dialogue
The JESUS OF NAZARETH project will be Pope Benedict's great legacy, just as the Theology of the Body has become the Venerable Pope John Paul's.
In this second volume he accomplishes many remarkable things, among them a positive and substantive contribution to the centuries-long Christian dialogue about expiation and atonement. This will be of great value to those who want to understand — and share with others — how our salvation is accomplished by Jesus's passion, death, and resurrection.
In particular, Benedict shows how the institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday is what transformed Jesus' death on Good Friday from being a Roman execution into the supreme sacrifice of God's redemptive love. Benedict's writing is a feast for the soul that deserves to be read and savored.
- Scott Hahn, PhD
Founder and Director of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
Working from Scripture, the Church Fathers, and contemporary scholarship, Benedict XVI deftly brings together the historical and theological dimensions of the gospel portraits of Jesus.
This is a splendid, penetrating study of the central figure of Christian faith; a learned and spiritual illumination not only of who Jesus was, but who he is for us today.
+Charles J. Chaput, OFMCap
Archbishop of Denver
What better guide could you find than Benedict XVI to lead you on the bracing adventure of exploring the historical Jesus and discovering, under the tutelage of this most sage successor to Peter, the inner meaning of Jesus's death and resurrection.
Faith and reason are the two wings Benedict XVI takes up to lead us to astonishingly fresh spiritual perspectives and dizzying heights. This book often takes one's breath away, while infusing in the reader the God-breathed Word, which is the Gospel.
- Tim Gray, PhD
President, Augustine Institute
As is his first volume of Jesus of Nazareth, so, once again, in his second volume Pope Benedict XVI has authored a marvelous book, this time on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
What makes this study so attractive is the depth of its biblical insight, its attention to historical issues, its keen theological acumen, and its lucid and precise expression.
Moreover, as with the first volume, it is written in a serene and prayerful manner — a serenity and a prayerfulness that is conveyed to the heart and mind of the reader.
This book fulfills Pope Benedict's ardent desire — that it would "be helpful to all readers who seek to encounter Jesus and to believe in him."
- Thomas G. Weinandy, OFMCap
Executive Director for the Secretariat for Doctrine
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
In this masterful interweaving of history and theology, Pope Benedict takes us to the heart of the Holy Week story. He reveals how the truth about Jesus is best grasped, not by minimalist scholarly reconstructions, but by profound meditation upon the Christ of the Gospels. A whole Lenten retreat in one volume.
- Ian Boxall
[DIM=9t]St. Stephen's House, Oxford
This second volume of Pope Benedict's "search for the face of the Lord" draws us ever deeper into the mysteries of Jesus's mission and life. At its heart glows a powerful meditation on the prayer of Jesus that draws into the mission of Christ the Saviour, and yet also toward the Saviour who lives among us still.
- Lewis Ayres
Bede Professor of Catholic Theology at Durham University
Benedict XVI writes with the deft touch of a mature scholar and an experienced teacher. He explains his often brilliant insights with simple clarity and the masterly phrase which enlightens and convinces.
His purpose is to give a reading which leads to a personal encounter with Christ. It is not just a historical study, but builds on the historico-critical method to arrive at a "faith-hermeneutic".
It does, of course, discuss historical problems, but the Pope's primary aim is "listening with Jesus' disciples across the ages". It is a reading of the Gospel not by a historian but by a historically alert theologian, writing from within the Church.
- Dom Henry Wansbrough, OSB
Appleforth Abbey
It turns out that CTS (Catholic Truth Society), Ignatius Pres's publishing partner in the UK, has also started promoting the book on its site
ctscatholiccompass.org/category/jesus-of-nazareth-ii/
with an intriguing entry today by a familiar byline from Catholic Herald and the Daily Mail...
'Jesus of Nazareth II':
Major news story tucked
into the Pope's text?
by Simon Caldwell
CTS blog
Feb. 25, 2011
Journalists and public relations consultants often tread common ground but their instincts are different. This is because generally they have functions that are diametrically opposed: the role of the journalist is primarily to bring stories into the public domain by seeking them out, discovering them and reporting them while PR operatives are often called upon to cover up, or bury, what journalists might think are the best stories.
They tend neither to like nor trust each other and occasionally will swear at one another down the telephone.
I am a freelance journalist slowly venturing into the world of PR. Imagine my delight to be handed an advance copy of
Jesus of Nazareth Part Two: From Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, the forthcoming book by Pope Benedict XVI, some six weeks before its publication on March 10.
Had I been working solely as a religious journalist I would have killed for this text (not literally of course). But my brief was PR and it included the task of discerning the “incendiary” passages with a view to preparing a media strategy for the launch of the book.
I think the decision by the Catholic Truth Society, the publishers to the Holy See in the UK and Ireland, to ask a journalist to read this book was shrewd.
I have identified at least one major international story tucked away in the Pope’s text. “Incendiary” might indeed be the best way to describe it.
As a journalist I would like to tell you everything but as a PR consultant I labour under the strict terms of the embargo imposed by the Vatican.
So I can’t tell you what the big stories are (that’s the PR side out of the way) but
what I can tell you is that Pope Benedict will again show his ability to surprise us. This is no dull theological tome. It is a meditation on the person of Jesus during his Passion, death and Resurrection by one of the Church’s greatest intellectuals.
The Pontiff also writes with pace and lucidity of style and his clarity of thought and insight are breathtaking. The narrative is simply gripping and I defy anyone to put down that book without being moved to the core.
If the Pope set out to bring Catholics closer to Christ by writing
Jesus of Nazareth, I think that he will accomplish his objective.
But it is also in the apostolic nature of the Successor of St Peter to perhaps keep one eye on a wider audience. So within the text the reader may discover several themes that touch on topics of the day.
Fellow religion journalists, get yourself a good breakfast on the morning of March 10 because you might be in for a long and busy day.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/02/2011 17:16]