Customer Reviews

In the Vineyard of the Lord: The Life, Faith, and Teachings of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI

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This is a user-friendly and accessible introduction to the thought of Joseph Ratzinger. It is one of the few books about Ratzinger which brings out the significance of his involvement with the journal Communio, his friendship with theologians like von Balthasar, and his engagement with the Communio e Liberazione movement. And it does so in a compact and readable text.

This is a readable, informative, and accurate introduction to the life, faith, and teaching of Pope Benedict XVI. That in itself is a formidable achievement, given the range of Benedict's work - serious, academic theology (one important book misleadingly called Introduction to Christianity (Communio Books) though to most readers it will seem anything but introductory), meditative works of devotion, homilies, and interviews, discussions, and debates on the state of the Catholic Church and the modern world.

As an introduction, this little book serves its purpose admirably. Reading it provides a better, fuller and fairer understanding of its subject than is to be found in the mainstream media. It works as an introduction, too, in that I think it would be hard to read the book without wanting to explore more deeply the life and work of this extraordinary pope.