A Christian friend of mine has a copy of Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI's first book as pope. I commented elsewhere about Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's previous books being difficult to understand, so I asked my friend how this one looked.He emailed:
It's not an extensive review, but it prompted me to order the book at Wal-Mart.com ($15.23 including tax and shipping).I've just read enough to see that it appears to be very readable. I think I'm going to like it a lot. Here's a little example of the good writing you'll find in the book:But now we must listen more carefully to the text. It continues: "As the Scripture has said, 'Out of his body shall flow rivers of living water'" (Jn 7:38). Out of whose body? Since the earliest times there have been two different answers to this question.Pretty clear writing, eh? It's pretty much that way all the way through, as best I can tell from just paging through and reading bits and pieces here and there. It's also very biblical. At times he sounds like an evangelical explaining what various scriptures mean.
Knowing that this would be his first title as Pope Benedict, maybe he hired some good editors to make it read in a more "Holy Father" style than a "seminary professor" style.
2 comments:
I think with one exception, most of the books "written" by Ratzinger have been compilations of his talks or writings, not deliberate works written to be a book by him.
The exception, I believe, is his book on sacred liturgy.
Maybe that explains it. Thanks!
I've never read his book on liturgy, though I've heard good things about it.
I'm looking forward to reading this book first, however. It should arrive in the mail in the middle of next week.
Thanks again for the information.
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