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The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World
 
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The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (Paperback)

by David Gibson (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Customers buy this book with The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful Are Shaping a New American Catholicism by David Gibson

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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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: HarperOne (August 21, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061161225
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061161223
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #439,459 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews
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44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Detailed Historical Background, Biased Depiction of Ratzinger/Benedict, October 4, 2006
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).
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31 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars It must be tough to pen these manifestos . . . , September 18, 2007
. . . 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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Another old hack dissing the Pope, April 15, 2008
By Seamus MacDougle (Missoula, MT, USA) - See all my reviews
Well well, what can one expect from Mr.Gibson? He is of the "Catholic" dissident mold, the type that never tire of throwing out the old "causes" of the liberal 60's and 70's even though the Church (thank God) is finaly past that stage. The book gives a fairly good background on the Holy Fathers early days, but it is full of Gibson's tired old "change the Church so we can be more like protestants agenda."
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Transparently biased--skip it
Summary:

The book starts off well, while Mr. Gibson sticks to the facts concerning the John Paul II--Benedict XVI transition. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Batjacboy

2.0 out of 5 stars Skip this Gibson work on the Rise and Fall of Rome...
"The Rule of Benedict" should have been a success. Certainly "The Rule of Benedict" offers an interesting and fairly in-depth coverage of the death of John Paul II and the papal... Read more
Published 6 months ago by K. Michael Derby

2.0 out of 5 stars Gibson misses the point
----------------------------
Gibson provides a scathing profile of Pope Benedict XVI and issues a dire warning about the future of Catholicism. Read more
Published 11 months ago by S. basham

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but Biased
An intriguing read, but definitely biased against Pope Benedict because of a liberal slant. Readers of America magazine will love this book. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Sidney Bloom

1.0 out of 5 stars Dave Gibson is a Loser, Benedict is a Winner
Gibson is a biased writer with no understanding of what it means to be Catholic. Gibson wants to throw away 2,000 years of tradition and make the Church another protestant... Read more
Published 19 months ago by J Tool

4.0 out of 5 stars Temporary regression
"The Rule of Benedict," is a good book to read if you are Catholic or into ecumenical activities. Clearly the book provides a positive view of what Benedict feels are the core... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Douglas A. O'HANDLEY

5.0 out of 5 stars Best summary of recent RCC history I've ever read!
Looking for a light summer read? NOT! Looking for something that provides both background and insight into the history of the Roman Catholic Church and its papacy for at least the... Read more
Published on June 8, 2007 by Suzanne Michelle

5.0 out of 5 stars Positive/encouraging critique of Benedict
Comprehensive and extremely well researched, this critique of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI places him in context of the most important developments in the Catholic Church for the... Read more
Published on May 6, 2007 by Leonard Derden

4.0 out of 5 stars "Living in darkness, seeking the light"
Many of the preceding reviews posted here reveal the attitudes of the reviewers towards not the author but the subject of David Gibson's study. Read more
Published on May 1, 2007 by John L Murphy

1.0 out of 5 stars So frustrating
The modern world is a disaster. Battle on Holy Father!
Mr. Gibson has missed the point of the papacy entirely. Read more
Published on April 23, 2007 by SnowMama

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