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In the Midst of History:

Benedict's Second Volume

FATHER JAMES V. SCHALL, S.J.

The English translation of Benedict XVI's second volume of


Jesus of Nazareth is being published officially by Ignatius
Press today. This volume covers the events of Christ's life
from Palm Sunday to the Ascension.

Following the first volume about Jesus' public ministry, we continue with a careful
presentation of the central events of Christ's life.
We are constantly aware of the enormous scholarship that has gone into efforts to prove or
disprove the veracity of those events. The present pope is thoroughly familiar with the body
of literature in all its complexity that revolves around "who Christ is." Benedict is also
familiar with the patristic and medieval authors, as well as the Greek and Roman
backgrounds to these events. The pope likewise knows the various strands of philosophy
ancient, medieval, and modern that often lie behind the efforts to prove or disprove the
veracity of the events of Christ's life.
Thus, one reads this second volume of Benedict's quiet, non-dogmatic effort to present the
basic facts and evidence with the assurance that nobody out there knows more about this
life than the present pope. Catholics, as I have often said, have no idea of the intellectual
strength of their own position. Many have grown up with the suspicion that somehow, out
there, the foundations of the faith have in various ways been undermined by science or
historical research. It turns out that, if anything is happening, both science and historical

research are underpinning the truth that the Scriptures present to us, namely, that Jesus of
Nazareth is what He says of Himself.
This book, Benedict tells us, is neither a "life of Christ" nor a thesis in Christology. The book
has many similarities with the tractate of Aquinas (ST III, 27-59) on Christ, but it is best
described as presenting "the figure and message of Jesus." Actually, Benedict writes, "I set
out to discover the real Jesus, on the basis of whom something like a 'Christology from
below' would then become possible." A Christology "from below," as opposed to a
Christology "from above" would mean, I take it, that if we look carefully at the events in the
life of Christ, they only can be properly explained if He was indeed the Christ, the Son of
the living God.
Many scholars, Benedict notes, have looked for "the historical Jesus." But they begin with
presuppositions that lack "sufficient content to exert any significant historical impact." The
historical Jesus, in such studies, somehow ends up being merely a nice guy, a
revolutionary, a confused Jew, or a dreamer. What we need is a reading of the evidence
that includes the reality of Christ's life as it exists even among us today. The testimony of
the Church throughout the ages has preserved the witness of the apostles. It is in their light
that we see and read the facts of Christ's life.
"I have attempted," Benedict writes, "to develop a way of observing and listening to the
Jesus of the Gospels that can indeed lead to personal encounter and that, through
collective listening with Jesus' disciples across the ages, can indeed attain sure knowledge
of the real historical figure of Jesus" (xvii). We need to ponder such words.

Jesus of Nazareth:
Holy Week From
the Entrance Into
Jerusalem to the
Resurrection
by Pope Benedict
XVI

Early in the twenty-first century, Anno Domini, the pope of Rome writes a two-volume,
scholarly, straight-forward book in which he reaffirms that what the Church taught in the
beginning was then true and this same understanding of Jesus is still true. None of the
massive efforts that have sought to disprove these truths about Jesus have succeeded.
They can be understood in their logic and in their scholarship. It is part of Catholicism to
know its enemies and deal with them honorably.
But it is also of the essence of Catholicism to insist that the facts are there. In the passion,
crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, we have a unified narration that is
consistent both with the fact that Christ was true man, who suffered, died and was buried,
and with the fact that He rose again and ascended into heaven. The pope even explains
what Christ's "sitting at the right hand of His Father might sensibly mean."
Benedict often says that the problem with our time is its lack of truth. I was especially struck
by this passage: "'Redemption' in the fullest sense can only come in the truth becoming
recognizable. And it becomes recognizable when God becomes recognizable. He becomes
recognizable in Jesus Christ. In Christ, God entered the world and set up the criterion of
truth in the midst of history." (194) It would be difficult to be more counter-cultural than this,
or, it must be said, more true. This is a great book by a great pope.

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