Lessing’s question about knowing God (the Absolute) in history has been a con-stant challenge for modern theology. The article collates views of Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper on this subject. A clear difference was noticed: Kasper decidedly gives priority to history and revelation in it, whereas Ratzinger puts stress on the idea of the priority of God and in its light interprets revelation and history. Two different types of theology emerge here. They manifest themselves in different ways of present-ing Christology. The former originates from the historical witness to Jesus and on this basis strives to construct a coherent picture of the incarnated Son of God’s identity. The latter originates from – resulting from the Church’s faith – an assumption about the unity of the Scripture and presents in this light the witness of the Gospel to Jesus. A thesis is proposed that both types of theology need each other, although it is not possible to harmonize them.
Joseph Ratzinger warns about a multitude of trials to superficially undertake the subject of religion. In this diverse world of religion, he sees some common points. The first step in the history of religion was to transcend the primitive, moving into myth. Second, most important step, was to leave the myth behind. This leaving is threefold – which is represented by three irreducible shapes of religion: the identity mysticism, the monotheistic revolution and the enlightenment. An expression of the first two are, respectively: the identity mysticism and the personal love mysticism. The fact that religions are affecting each other must not be omitted, either. The place of Christianity in the history of religion – nota bene gained by both, the dialogue with other religions and standing against them – defines standing with the God of faith and the God of the philosophers, and the decisive choice of faith and mind together with the truth and the cult. In his thoughts concerning the dialogue of religions, J. Ratzinger points out two types: the mystical and theist, of the religion. Along them walks as a temptation the pragmatic type, in which the question about the truth is ignored. The result of the dialogue of the religions will not be a unification of all religions. In this dialogue, the truth cannot be ignored. At last, it cannot be forgotten that there is a religio vera, and that it is Christianity.
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, is one of the great-est Catholic theologians of the 20th and 21st century. The main field of his theological activity is fundamental theology, which is perceived by him as the area of a broadly understood dialogue on the credibility of Christianity in the modern world. This article attempts to analyze the views of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI on the Christian identity of Europe. The various issues of this study are as follows: Europe as a phenomenon of cultural interaction; Right to the place of Christianity in the Europe of tomorrow; European crisis of values; European Homo oeconomicus and the Gospel; Dismissing former Eurocentrism; Courage in the struggles of the new face of Chris-tian Europe. In the conclusion the author emphasizes validity of Joseph Ratzinger’s/Benedict XVI’s thoughts on the future of Europe in the context of the ongoing changes in the European Union and the migration crisis.
This article discusses Benedict the XVI’s charting of the formation and history of Europe around a mission to reign as a sacred duty for the sake of Human Dignity in the light of Edith Stein’s insights into the relationship between community formation and objective values. First, an account of Ratzinger’s understanding of Europe as a concept of political geography is given. Secondly is discussed the mission at the heart of the formation of Europe according to Ratzinger, and how such a mission would, according to Stein, be particularly suited for shaping a people and a continent. The third section discusses Ratzinger’s understanding of Human Dignity in the light of Stein’s understanding of values.
For the Mariology of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI it is fundamental that the Mother of the Lord is not viewed in isolation, but is seen in the totality of the Christian faith. To the Marian texts of the New Testament he added the lines of the great feminine saviour figures of the Old Testament, which have drawn down the power of God by their faith and inspired salvific histories. In Mary these women are revisited, in her “Fiat” the people of Israel experience a concrete personification. Ratzinger traces Maria as a “church in the origin”, in her the church receives a personal centre with corresponding consequences. His Marian dogmatics is based on his own biblical theological approach, and especially gives the teachings of the recent church history its own well-comprehensible depth structure.
Intellectual and spiritual formation of Joseph Ratzinger - Pope Benedict XVI - requires talk about the process of his development. The article refers to the most overlooked phase of the young Ratzinger, who moves from the position of a progres-sive and sometimes irresponsible theorizing academic theologian to the position of a thinker grounded in the community of faith, becoming the guardian and teacher of Christian doctrine in line with the spirit and tradition of the Church. A lot of light on the change in the attitude of the German professor sheds the preparatory phase to the Second Vatican Council and its debates, as well as the unpleasant experience of the student revolt in 1968, which finds our professor in Tübingen. And in this way the liberal German theologian grows into to an outstanding Catholic theologian of the universal Church.