Thursday, April 21, 2005
(9:50 AM) | Old - Doug Johnson:
Ratzinger: a call for posts and a brief overview
We need to have a Ratzinger Week, pronto (pending, of course, the approval of the weblog administrator(s)). I know we are to the end of the semester crunch or nearly so for most. So let's negotiate. If you are interested/willing to write per info below or otherwise, let's hear about it. Also say when the earliest time is that you could reasonably get around to doing something (sooner the better: I want a Ratzinger week, not a Benedict XVI week!).I checked out a stack of English language Ratzinger books from the library last night in hopes of being able to do a single post overview of issues of interest to me. Not possible in a short period of time. There's just too much there. Ratzinger IS a theological heavyweight. As such, some of the things he is rightly criticized (or praised) for at the macro level owe a great deal to more nuanced decisions made in theological trenches over the course of four or five decades. For all his faults, he was seriously involved in Vatican II. Nate, however, has already mentioned a shift in his thinking on Vatican II after 1968. I think there are also some real continuties with his pre-1968 thinking that should be fleshed out a bit.
A brief overview of issues of weblog interest, with some suggestions for topics and posters:
Liberation Theo: We need at least two or three posts here since leftist/communist political discussion are the bread and butter of the weblog. Nate seems quite familiar with the history of the dispute between Ratzinger and Latin American lib. theologians (I'm only familiar a bit with Gutierrez), and I think Adam or Anthony should be interested in doing something here as well. Also, I spent a good deal of time last night with the book on Bonaventure's philosophy of history. This is where the rubber hits the road folks. In good Catholic fashion, Ratzinger wants to have his Franciscan cake and eat with gluttonous Thomas too. Nein!!! Right where the book begins to get good, Ratzinger cuts it off with a wimper (Saints Augustine and Bonaventure, it is conceded, have a major difference on whether or not the kingdom comes in history or no ... but both of their major works on the matter end w/ the word "peace" - isn't that special). Marxists generally, and liberation theology particularly generally take their stand squarely with the messianic historiography of Bonaventure and the Franciscans (the common genealogical ancestor mediated for Marx through Hegel being Joachim of Fiore). Discard may want to post here, given a related paper on time, history, etc. that he just finished.
Ecumenism, etc: one or two posts. I will post on Judaism. I read Ratzinger's short, but brimmingly brilliant book on Israel and the church at the very outset of my investigations three or four years ago. I reread it last night. Ratzinger actually! uses the phrase "the universalizing of the Torah by Jesus" ... I'll stop here, except to say that here Ratzinger is actually quite radical. He consciously, though very subtly, overturns both Aquinas and Barth in a couple of short, stunning moves (still something very important to skewer him for - though not something that will get the Simon Wiesenthal Center up in arms). If someone else wants to post on Islam or other religions, that would be great, but isn't strictly necessary in the same way a post or two on lib. theo is if this thing is going to get off the ground. The book on Israel and the covenant I am referring to has a bit on other religions that I can't evaluate as well as I can the stuff on Judaism, plus he doesn't take them as seriously.
BTW: from my perusal last night I would suspect that the best way in English to get a handle on Ratzinger theologically/philosophically/poltically would be to pick up the collection of essays called *Church, Ecumenism, Politics*. Published in English in 1988, this book appears to me to be the best way to become quickly familiar with the major strands of R's thought (it includes at least one essay directly on the liberation theo question). For a general intro, perhaps less heady, *The Ratzinger Report* which is a series of interview responses may also do the trick.
Gender and Sexuality: Adam linked us to this earlier via NPR which, according to Kotsko, "claimed that it illustrates that Ratzinger is as feminist as it is possible to be while still not allowing women into the priesthood." My wife and I read it over and discussed it a bit. It is certainly better than the fundamentalism that many of us grew up with, but there is certainly some things to be said against it. Besides the brief reference to Jesus having balls, I'm not sure from this document how R. justifies not having women priests in light of his general engagements with Scripture and Tradition (which I've noticed to be generally strong, though with a definite tendency to ellide material, either in support of conservative or liberal positions, which conflict with what he is after - more in my post on Judaism). Perhaps someone can trace this down further (I do know that Jesus' jimmy is the ultimate reason - I just have to imagine that there is more extensive discussion somewhere). I also haven't found, in my brief look, whether Ratzinger has written anything substantial on his own on the sexuality questions. This was one of JPII's specialties before becoming pope, so maybe he just left that intellectual work to him. Someone want to do Ratzinger on sex?
Culture of Life Issues: War, abortion, death penalty. I didn't know the answer at all and had to ask around here at Duke to find out that Ratzinger has a reputation for being quite strict on Just War issues to the point that he rules out all modern warfare (so the rumor goes). It would be especially nice if someone knows more about this. He has said publicly already, I guess, that he took Benedict XVI because B15 was so anti-WWI. (Why is the American press so tunnel visioned on sexual questions that it can't exploit such things!) Now if he would become as nasty of a hound dog on this as he is apparently willing to be about abortion, a host of other errors might be marginalized a bit. Let's say for instance that B16 decided to really give the US hell by sanctioning the most disappointing man in America, George Weigel. Weigel was handpicked to write the JPII's biography, and then had the audacity to sign the statement of principles of the Project for a New American Century, an absolute middle finger to Catholic Just War principles (see especially this report). If the Catholic curia want to deny communion to those who defy it on life issues, start with Weigel, then perhaps we can take such actions with respect to abortion seriously. Anyone want to go down this road further? Or go in another direction with life and death issues?
Other Possible Topics: Vatican II generally; Church-State issues; Opus Dei, Fascism, Nazism (lots of smoke and fury here, any substance?); Pedophile scandal (a way to do sex and collegiality issues together?), Race Issues (any leads here?), philosophical theology generally (would be nice to have someone size up the center of R. thinking - my initial suspicisions: Barth as mediated by Von Balthasar is highly influential, especially evident in the way he handles Scripture and tradition; the polemics against Joachim in a way that "rescues" Francis and Bonaventure may be the key to almost everything - if the church "can't have" Francis/Bonaventure and Aquinas ... big trouble for R).
Feel free to propose other topics. If we can get some quick feedback, maybe we can pick a week and start signing people up (again, approval pending!).
