Benedict XVI A Guide for the Perplexed [Paperback]

This is an upper-level introduction to the thought and theology of Pope Benedict XVI. The book explains the foundations of Ratzinger's thought by analysing the theological axes upon which his works turn and helps readers to place his thought in the context of his intellectual antecedents and contemporary interlocutors.

Chapter I: The Intellectual Antecedents and Contemporary Interlocutors:
Including the seminal contributions to Ratzinger's thought of: Sts. Augustine and Bonaventure, John Henry Newman, Romano Guardini, Peter Wust, Josef Pieper, Martin Buber, Theodore H??cker, Gottlieb S??hngen, Luigi Giussani, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac SJ; and the works of interlocutors, Josef Rupert Geiselman, Walter Kasper, Hans K??ng, and Paul Knitter. Karl Rahner fits in as both an early antecedent and an interlocutor.

Chapter II: The Response to the Modernist Crisis

This will include a guide through Ratzinger's many works relating to principles of scriptural interpretation, including documents of the Pontifical Biblical Commission produced under his chairmanship,; and also to his critique of the Suarezian account of Revelation which reached its zenith in the 1960s in theDei Verbumdocument of the Second Vatican Council, which Ratzinger and Karl Rahner helped to draft, and the work onRevelation and Traditionco-authored by Ratzinger and Rahner.

Chapter III: The Response to Heidegger

This will include material from Ratzinger'sPrinciples of Catholic Theologywhere he states that an understanding of the mediation of history in the realm of ontology is 'the fundamental crisis of our age'. It will also provide an exposition of Ratzinger's criticisms of Karl Rahner's approach to the crisis and his preference for the approach of von Balthasar.

Chapter IV: The Essential Difference of Christianity

This will cover themes in Ratzinger's seminalIntroduction to Christianity(which was anylc