The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI The Christocentric Shift

by de Gaál, Emery

• ISBN13: 9781137345332
• ISBN10: 1137345330
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-08-21
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Many refer to Pope Benedict XVI as "the Mozart of Theology." Who are the personalities and thinkers who have informed his theology? What events, and which religious devotions, have shaped his personality? What are the central themes of his complex scholarship encompassing more than 1500 titles? This study attempts to shed light on the unifying melody of the policies and positions of a pontificate charged with spiritual and theological depth. Especially in the 1970s an anthropocentric shift had occurred. Emery de Gaál argues that, amid a general lack of original, secular ideas stirring public opinion, Benedict XVI inaugurates an epochal Christocentric shift; by rekindling the Patristic genius, he provides Christianity with both intellectual legitimacy and the scholarship needed to propel it into the twenty-first century.

Author Biography

Fr. Emery de Gaál is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake operated by the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and located in Mundelein, Illinois. He studied theology in Munich and Pittsburgh and also published Theology: The Art of Equanimity. He is a Catholic priest of the diocese of Eichstätt, Bavaria, Germany.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Christocentric Shift
PART I: ESTABLISHING THE CHRISTOCENTRIC VISION
1. Highlights of a Lifelong Ministry
2. Personality and Temperament
3. Formative Early Encounters as a Seminarian: Personal Existentialism Grounded in Jesus Christ
4. Graduate Studies in Munich
5. His Language and Style
6. Academic Teacher: Truth as Person
7. Pastor to 'Radical Christians': The Catholic Integrated Community
PART II: JESUS CHRIST: GOD'S SELF-DISCLOSURE
8. The Beginnings of His Theology
9. The Inaugural Lecture in 1959
10. Jesus Christ, the Sovereign, Unsurpassable Revealer of Revelation
11. The Question of Faith in the World
12. The Unity of the Old and New Testaments
13. The Biblical Basis of Christology
14. A Twentieth-Century Classic: Introduction to Christianity
15. Christ and the Pursuit of Happiness: Safeguarding the Non-Disponibility of Christ
PART III: THE CHURCH: THE CHRIST-FILLED REALM
16. Communio: Christian Brotherhood and the Church as One Reality
17. Christ and the Church
18. Christ and Ecumenical Dialogue
19. An Ecclesiological Dispute at the Turn of the Millennium
20. Jesus Christ as the Unifying Ecclesial Reality
21. Being Christ to Others
22. Christ and Freedom: Evangelization
23. Christian Brotherhood: Entering into Jesus Christ's Earthly Ineffability
24. The Liturgy: Christ-Filled Worship
25. The Transparency of Christ and Christians: The Liturgy
26. Regensburg: Provocation or Jesus Christ as the Basis for Civilized Discourse?: Jesus Christ as the Reconciler of Faith and Reason 
27. Jesus Christ, the Definer and Personification of the Eschaton
28. Mary: In Christ, the First Free Human Being
Epilogue: Jesus Christ Offering the World Identity and Meaning