I bought this because I thought it was about time I read something `orthodox'. I'd been reading quite a bit that challenged the traditional teaching of the Church. I'd also never read anything by Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. Having read the book, I don't know if I'm any more comfortable with traditional teaching about the nativity, resurrection, descent into hell, ascension etc, but I am most impressed by Benedict...
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This is my my second review on one of the Pope's books. I read "Salt of the Earth" first and that should really be your starting point as it is very readable, the tone is conversational. BTW, this is the first edition, pick up the 2nd edition at the Ignatius website, the new preface is worth it. This is a book for thinkers. It is not for people who have a simple faith (no less authentic, of course) but rather for people...
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This is a some what forgotten classic . It is almost forty years old and yet it is as relevant today as it was when it was first published. The Pope John Paull II is a tough act to follow. We first met him as a strong middle aged man who reached out to the young and built bridges between Catholicism and other faiths. There may be therefore some trepidation now that the Catholic church suddenly has a 78 year old German Pope...
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10 years ago when I was considering whether to convert to my wife's faith, a Baptist minister friend singled out this book as one of his own, all-time favorites - the one that best lived up to its title, as an "Introduction to Christianity." First drafted in the summer of 1967, this book is based on a series of lectures father Joseph Ratzinger gave to students at Germany's university at Tubingen. As if it were written just...
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Perhaps given the situation with Cardinal Ratzinger becoming the newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI, no better book could be read as an insight into the general directions of the man than this - a text intended for use as a introductory textbook on Christian theology. Ratzinger takes the approach for a framework generally from the construction of the ancient Apostles Creed - his first section begins with the 'I believe...'...
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