VATICAN CITY AUTHOR · CATHOLIC CHURCH · DOCTRINES
Joseph Ratzinger
Also known as: Benedict XVI Pope, Benedict XVI
Joseph Alois Ratzinger was born in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany, the son of a police officer. At the age of five, he declared that he wanted to be a cardinal. In 1941, he was conscripted into the Hitler Youth, which was mandatory, although his father believe that Nazism conflicted with the Catholic faith. In 1943, while in seminary, he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps, although he deserted in 1945. When he returned home he was imprisoned in a POW camp, and returned to the seminary when he was released after a few months. He was ordained in 1951. In 1958 Ratzinger became a professor of Freising College. He moved to the University of Bonn in 1959, the University of Münster in 1963, and the University of Tübingen in 1966, where he was appointed to a chair in dogmatic theology. While he was at Tübingen he witnessed the student movements of the 1960s, which culminated in disturbances and riots in spring of 1968. Although he was seen as a dogmatic reformist, he believed that the radicalization of the student body was a result of a departure from traditional Catholic teachings. In 1969, Ratzinger was moved to the University of Regensburg in Bavaria. In 1972 he co-founded the theological journal Communio. In 1977, Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising. That same year he was named Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria Consolatrice al Tiburtino by Pope Paul VI. In 1981, Pope John Paul II named Ratzinger Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and he resigned his post at Munich. In 1993 he became Cardinal Bishop of Velletri-Segni. In 2005, he was elected as the next Pope. He chose for himself the name Pope Benedict XVI.
At the beginning of his famous essay, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber raised the following question: "A product of modern European civilization, studying any problem of universal history, is bound to ask himself to what combination of circumstances the fact should be attributed that in Western civilization, and in Western civilization only, cultural phenomena have appeared which (as we like to think) lie in a line of development having universal significance and value."
— from Without Roots
Most acclaimed
Without Roots
This is Ratzinger's first book as Pope. Written in conjunction with President of the Italian Senate, Marcello Pera--a partnering of the statesman and the holy man--the book is a reassessment of the European "West" and its struggle to define itself in the wake of war, terrorism, diplomatic and spiritual crisis. Pope Benedict reveals a thorough grasp of the contemporary global climate and the tentative and fractious bonds that tie Europe to the rest of the world. Though critical and cautionary, the new Pope ultimately offers an assertive message of hope to mend the West's fractured identity and reconnect with its spiritual roots.--From publisher description.
Prayer
" From New York Times-bestselling author Philip Kerr comes an amazing departure: an intense psychological thriller, sure to garner even more acclaim for this powerhouse author on the rise. Gil Martins, an agent with the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Unit in Houston, confronts the violence generated by extremism within our nation's borders every day. He sees hatred and destruction wrought by every kind of "ism" there is, and the zealots who kill in their names. Until now, he has always been a part of the solution-however imperfect-a part of justice. But when Gil discovers he played a key role in wrongly condemning an innocent man to death row, it shakes his faith-in the system, in himself, and in God-deeply. It even estranges him from his wife and son. Desperate, Gil offers up a prayer. To know God is there, not through a sign or physical demonstration but through the strength to cope with his ever-growing, ever-creeping doubts. His problems become more than personal as things heat up in Houston. A serial killer terrorizing the morally righteous turns out to have religious motivations, upping the case from homicide to domestic terrorism. A number of prominent secular icons die or are grievously injured abruptly and under suspicious circumstances, the latest of which is a New Atheist writer who's fallen into an inexplicable coma. Left and right, it seems Gil can't escape the power of God and murder. As Gil investigates both cases, he realizes that there may be a connection-answering his prayers in a most terrifying way. "--
Pope Benedict XVI
While often regarded as a conservative influence on the church, the Pope and his story defy easy categorization, argues bestselling author Stephen Mansfield. John Paul became a priest only after attending an underground seminary during the Nazi occupation of Poland. To keep his national culture alive during those dark years, young Karol started an outlawed theater troupe. He became a poet and a playwright, and, even after gaining an international reputation as a theologian, he still kept the artist's touch.Mansfield vividly recalls the Pope as the churchman whose courage helped to bring down communism, as the world figure who visited his would-be assassin's prison cell to extend forgiveness, and as the theologically conservative icon who fought for the poor and against the corruptions of capitalism more than any other world leader of his time. He is the first pope to enter a synagogue, the first to apologize for the Holocaust, and the first to visit a concentration camp.What is certain, says Mansfield, is that Pope John Paul II has had a decisive impact on our times, and not only as a religious leader: He has shaped our world as a philosopher, a statesman, an artist, and a "great soul."In Pope John Paul II, Mansfield examines the Pope's influence on the world specifically from the perspective of a non-Catholic-a committed Christian without fealty to Rome. Mansfield's academic depth, his poetic but widely accessible writing style, and his ability to render complex religious ideas understandable to the non-religious, lend his treatment of Pope John Paul II significance for readers of all philosophies and faiths.