This is a short post with some observations about a book I have recently started reading by Joseph Ratzinger (more widely known as Pope Benedict XVI). I write these observations down partly as a way of encouraging people to become familiar with the theology of this enigmatic man and scholar. Quite frankly I believe he has some remarkable and valuable things to say and people of all stripes should read him and listen to him carefully.

 

I recognize that there are some who, having reached the word pope and realized I am writing about a Catholic theologian, will simply turn away and ignore the insights simply because he is Catholic. This is, of course, narrow-minded and ignorant in the same sense as when Catholics ignore good Protestant theology. After all there is really no such thing as good Catholic theology, good Protestant theology or good Orthodox theology – in the end there is only good theology and I believe Ratzinger provides good theology.

 

What I like about Ratzinger’s book Saint Paul is that it is a collection of catecheses (public teachings) written and delivered throughout the liturgical year of 2008-2009 dedicated to Saint Paul in the Catholic church (celebrating 2,000 years since his birth in about 8 AD). Why is this significant? Well whenever you take theology and bring it before the communion of saints as public teaching it becomes the pinnacle of all theology (as far as I am concerned) pastoral theology. That is to say the theological, and pastoral roles meet (as they should always but rarely do) and create something wonderful.

 

As to the observations from the book:

 

"A primary and fundamental fact to bear in mind is the relationship between the milieu in which Paul was born and raised  and the global context to which he later belonged."

 

Ratzinger first and foremost believes that in order to understand Paul and therefore the word of God through Paul we must understand him within the historical context of his time and place. This is solid thelogical thinking. Ratzinger goes on to use the relationship between stoicism and early Christianity as an example of why historical context must be understood. Ratzinger writes "it is clear that it is impossible to understand Saint Paul properly without placing him against both the Judaic and pagan background of his time."

 

Ratzinger quotes Acts 17:24, 28 "God does not live in shrines made by man…for in him we live, move and have our being." He points out that this statement would be completely agreed upon by the stoics of Paul’s day not to suggest that Paul was a stoic but that Paul, being a man of Israel, Greece and Rome, was eminantly qualified to translate the gospel to all nations just as God has selected him to do.

 

In terms of belief in the early church Ratzinger writes "the only thing necessary was to belong to Christ, to live with Christ and to abide by his words. Thus, in belonging to Christ, they also belonged to Abraham and to God and were sharers in all the promises."

 

Further along Ratzinger speaks of Paul’s message on Mars Hill, the Areopagus – "the discourse of the Areopagus, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, is the model of how to translate the Gospel into Greek culture, of how to make Greeks understand that this God of the Christians and Jews was not a God foreign to their culture but the unknown God they were awaiting, the true answer to the deepest questions of their culture." In this quote Ratzinger sums up the process of mission for the church. 

 

Ratzinger points out that Paul, in his own words, has "anxiety for the churches" (2 Cor 11:28). This brief focus of Ratzinger’s on Paul’s anxiousness for the church caused me to wonder why Paul was anxious at all? After all in our post-modern age it is generally unacceptable to be anxious for the church because it seems to betray a lack of faith tht God will do as God will do. Doesn’t Jesus himself say do not worry? Of course Paul’s anxiety is different from the worry Jesus forbids. His anxiety is rooted in the reality that the community of believers have significant God-given roles to play and there is a very real possibility that they will shirk those responsibilities. We are not fond of thinking in our day that we have roles and responsibilities as part of the community of believers. We would rather see the community as a more romanticized perfected communist sect where we all float by on God’s grace (this concept of grace is cheap grace according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, grace without responsibility). Ratzinger’s focus on Paul’s anxiety contradicts the romanticized perspective of the Christian community.

 

Another thought from Ratzinger are his observations on the conversion of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus. Ratzinger writes "The average reader may be tempted to linger too long on certain details, such as the light in the sky, falling to the ground, the voice that called him, his new condition of blindness, his healing like scales falling from his eyes and the fast that he made. But all these details refer to the heart of the event: the Risen Christ appears as a brilliant light and speaks to Saul, transforms his thinking and his entire life. The dazzling radiance of the Risen Christ blinds him; thus what was his inner reality is also outwardly apparent, his blindness to the truth, to the light that is Christ. And then his definitive "yes" to Christ in baptism restores his sight and makes him really see. In the ancient Church Baptism was clled illumination because this sacrament gives light; it truly makes one see."

 

In a short and concise paragraph Ratzinger packs in loads of theology, particularly about the nature of the miraculous in scripture and how to read it. As he points out too many people focus in on the miraculous and interpret them as significant unto themselves. Far from denying the miraculous Ratzinger points out that miracles point to a deeper hidden reality either within the person to whom the miracle is being applied or to the one performing the miracle (often both). Ratzinger’s pastoral heart makes him far more gentle than I would be. When he says "certain readers may be tempted to linger too long…" I would say it is these same people that zero in on specific miraclous occurrences and prophetic pronouncements such as tongues, prophecy, various end times predictions etc, and read them solely in reference to themselves (almost worshiping the miraculous). The problem with such overt focus is that the believer misses the whole point of the miraculous event or prediction – which is to point them to the deeper reality that Christ is risen, the kingdom has come and will come, and we are to be motivated workers in that kingdom.

 

A point that I cheered heartily for when Ratzinger made it was the importance of the community of believers. He points out that Paul was eminantly qualified to go about his mission alone. After all he was "a Jew of Jews" in his own words, a witness to the risen Christ who personally chose him to go into the world and deliver the gospel. Paul could easily have defended his qualifications as a lone ranger within Christianity since none other than him had such a resume. Ratzinger points out however that "Paul learned that despite the immediacy of his relationship with the Risen One, he had to enter into communion with the Church, he himself had to be baptized, he had to live in harmony with the other Apostles."

 

Once again Ratzinger is reinforcing what many in our current post-modern culture chafe at – the absolute need for the individual follower of Christ to be in unity with and fellowship with a community of believers. If at times we feel that we have grown to a state of maturity that no longer requires us to regularly take part in and contribute to a community of faith how much moreso could Paul have felt? Yet he chose connection with the community because in the end it is part of our salvation. There is no room for lone rangers within the community of faith for just as God is triune community within Himself so must we reflect that same community here on earth (thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven as the prayer goes).

 

A final note from Ratzinger (for now) that I think I will let speak for itself: