The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World [Hardcover]

David Gibson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2006

There was no neutral response to the announcement that the "enforcer"—Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—had been elected Benedict XVI, the next pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Conservatives saw it as the final triumph of their agenda. Liberals were aghast. Everyone else wondered what to expect. Award-winning religion journalist David Gibson explores the "war of ideas" that will be a defining feature of this new papacy. Gibson persuasively argues that by tackling the modern world head-on Benedict XVI is gambling that he can make traditional, orthodox Catholicism the savior of contemporary society. But if the elderly Benedict fails in his battle with modernity, will Catholicism wind up as a "smaller-but-purer church"—the new kind of fortress Catholicism that some conservatives want? Such fears haunt millions of American Catholics pressing for change. Gibson points to the early warning signs of a papacy hyperfocused on "right belief" and shows how the key decisions of this surprising papacy will profoundly impact the future of Catholicism.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's name was announced as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church on April 19, 2005, Gibson, a journalist and Catholic convert, was among the throng but not cheering. The author of The Coming Catholic Church considers himself part of "the silent majority of Catholics, who were hoping, praying, for the vibrancy and openness that would herald a new chapter in the history of the church." Instead, he writes, they got a "polarizing figure" with a well-publicized past, a man known for his heavy hand with liberation theologians and others deemed to veer toward heterodoxy. In this detailed examination, Gibson tells how Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, and why his ways of thinking about the church may not bode well for efforts to reform it in such areas as governance and opening the priesthood to women or married men. He paints the new pontiff as someone who is more interested in the personal piety of Catholics than their engagement with the world and issues of social justice. Readers who have been watching the new pope for signals of what his papacy will bring will find this to be absorbing reading. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

No fan of the current pontiff, journalist and religion writer Gibson provides a scathing profile of Pope Benedict XVI and issues a dire warning about the future of Catholicism. Asserting that Benedict is a regressive theologian, he cautions that the church is headed in a very conservative direction, in direct opposition to the silent majority of American Catholics, who favor a more liberal spiritual and social agenda. Although a church at the crossroads would seem to need a leader willing to forge ahead, Benedict has neither the inclination nor the temperament to propel the Roman Catholic Church into the -twenty-first century. Mired in a traditional brand of doctrinal orthodoxy, he represents a giant step backward to loyal Catholics who have patiently waited, hoping for a breath of fresh air to revive their moribund church. This provocative assessment of Pope Benedict's background and the first year of his papacy supplies plenty of food for thought and discussion. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060858419
• ISBN-13: 978-0060858414
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,016,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Detailed Historical Background, Biased Depiction of Ratzinger/Benedict, October 4, 2006

By 

D. Horan "Franciscan Friar" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (Hardcover)

While Gibson deserves significant praise for a thoroughly written, superbly researched historical approach to the background that provides the setting for the life of then Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, this is a clearly polemical work set out against Ratzinger from the start.

Having studied the theological work of Joseph Ratzinger over more than a forty-year career, read all of the biographies currently on the market, and read the CDF promulgations and Benedict XVI's recent speeches and first encyclical - I feel that I have a relatively good understanding of the life and work of this man. While I do not necessarily agree with everything ever written or spoken by Ratzinger, I cannot clearly admit that the personal picture that is painted by Gibson of Ratzinger/Benedict is at all unbiased or close to accurate. For example, Gibson describes Ratzinger's approach to liberation theology as follows:

"This is in keeping with Ratzinger's grim, purist theological outlook, which sees even the slightest deviation from his view of tradition as tantamount to despoiling an entire theory or movement or person, a seduction so subtle we may not even realize it is happening." (Gibson 193)

This is hardly unbiased, and, frankly, not very accurate. It is an opinion of the author that is presented as objective.

That admitted. I must say that, historically, this is incredibly thorough. The setup is one of such depth that Gibson really does not get to the subject of Joseph Ratzinger until almost 150 pages into the book. The first part of the book is primarily concerned with the rise and reign of pope John Paul II. Only after that background is established does he move to introduce the current pontiff. What is nice about this approach is that while the outline for the program of the book is the life and career of Joseph Ratzinger, the author takes frequent side-trips through the history of the time. What is surprising is the little actual content about Joseph Ratzinger. This seems to me to be more a comparative piece on the differences in the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

While I do not recommend that this book be read as anyone's sole source on the life and work of Joseph Ratzinger, now pope Benedict XVI, I would suggest that this be read in conjunction with other works by and about him. Perhaps it is best served with a side of Ratzinger's own "Milestones" (Ignatius, 1998) and "Introduction to Christianity" (Ignatius, 2004) as well as John Allen Jr.'s "Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger" (Continuum, 2000).

36 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It must be tough to pen these manifestos . . ., September 18, 2007

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (Paperback)

. . . when your position within the Catholic Church has been so marginalized by the last two pontificates as to be almost non-existent.

Nevertheless, the hard Left Catholics slog on, all Sturm und Drang, sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Take David Gibson. His last book, The Coming Catholic Church, a jeremiad against the depredations of JPII, the Roman Curia, and anyone who hasn't rolled over in favor of gay marriage, women priests, and free condoms, proved to be not so prophetic after all. The Catholic Church of his fervid dreams seems no nearer materializing than a fata morgana.

Yet he presses on. Since the actual Catholic Church appears strangely resistant to his blandishments, Gibson, in this latest screed, is reduced to vague threats and more dire predictions that if she doesn't shape up and meet the radicals' demands, she may soon find herself bereft of them, a situation one struggles to find problematic. After all, there are numerous other ecclesial harbors that would welcome the hardcore dissidents, from the Unitarian Universalists to the Episcopal Church. I'm sure Gibson and his ilk would find a warm welcome among Jon Shelby Spong, for example.

Why don't they just leave? More fun, and, one supposes, more lucrative to bash the Church from the inside.

A favorite ploy of his is to trot out supposedly revelatory polls about lay persons' preferences--a symptom of his desire to transform a hierarchical Church into a liberal democracy. Well, lemme tell ya, Davy-boy: it ain't happenin'. Your project's doomed. I, for one, am thankful that the Catholic Church is constituted in such a way that progressivist rabble rousers like you can't hijack it, as has happened in numerous Protestant denominations that have caved in to radicals. As annoying as books like The Rule of Benedict are, their net effect, praise God, is practically zero.

Unreadable by anyone except those stuck in a '70s time warp, waiting for the illusive "spirit of Vatican II" to materialize.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for Catholics and Non-Catholics, March 14, 2007

By 

D. Hutter "bookworm" (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (Hardcover)

This book by David Gibson, is a high quality work with an intelligent combination of historical accuracy and artistic description. You can immediately tell that it is written by a true Vatican "insider" with both an American and an Italian heart. It is easy to read, and gives the reader a sense of both the objectiveness of the Catholic Church (and it's newest Pope), and the depth and beautiful mystery of both. As Mr. Gibson is a convert to Catholicism, there are enough explanations that both Catholics and Non-Catholics alike will find this book easy to follow and will be able to form their own opinions. I would highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to familiarize themselves with the hierarchical Church or the role of the Church in International politics.