Jesus of Nazareth

I am reading a wonderful book by the new pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger). The book is titled Jesus of Nazareth and it is surprising, at least to me, in a lot of ways. First of all, the mere fact that the book exists is surprising to me. I can't remember former popes publishing in popular, mainstream venues. But then again, I probably just don't know about all the other popes and the books they've written.

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As you start into the book, Ratzinger makes it clear that anyone in the world is welcome to disagree with him on the topics discussed in the book, so long as they disagree in good will. A pleasant nod to papal fallibility.

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The book keeps coming back around to what appears to be its central topic The historical fact of Jesus - that Jesus is who the bible says he is - not who the liberal modern scholars say he may have been like (or what they would like him to be like).

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The combination of the following things make for a very good read and a refreshing biblical theological message.

• Ratzinger, one of the best-trained theologians in the world with the complete backing of the Roman Catholic Church and the virtually unlimited scholarly resources making a conservative statement about the historicity and reliability of the Holy Bible's account of our savior's life.
• The willingness of the head of the Roman Catholic church to engage the rest of the world in a theological conversation from a position of, if not equal standing, at least collegiality. The tone of dialogue rather than of infallible papal bull.
• The ecumenical tone of the book. Ratzinger quotes C.S. Lewis (Episcopalian) and makes positive or at least neutral references to scholarship coming out of the eastern Church. This book has a tone of catholicism (with a little-c) rather than Catholicism (with a Capital-C).
• Neither last nor least, the wonderful, educational homilies related to Christ's life.

Highly Recommended. I can't wait to get back to it. It's one of the few theological books that reads like a novel without being watered-down pap. If a theology book can be a page-turner this one is.