The Rule of Benedict -- A Review


David Gibson. The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World. San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 2006. 290 pp.


To follow in the footsteps of a superstar – that was the task given to German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when on April 19, 2005 the College of Cardinals chose him to succeed John Paul II as Pope. Taking the name Benedict XVI, the scholarly Ratzinger, had the unenviable task of leading what had become a somewhat rudderless ship into the 21st Century.
David Gibson is a Roman Catholic and a journalist of religion. He writes as a participant in the story, and so his telling of Benedict’s story is colored by his own hopes and dreams for his church. This is not hagiographic, but is critical of the subject at hand, and yet, his telling of the story is fair. As a non-Catholic I am given an opportunity to meet the man who overseas the spiritual lives of millions. It is a well told story and worth spending time with, especially for non-Catholics who are interested in the spiritual well-being of our brothers and sisters within the Catholic communion.
The book begins with the papal election that produced Benedict XVI. There was much anticipation at this election, for John Paul II had led the church for more than a quarter century. Pundits suggested all manner of papable cardinals, from Latin Americans to Africans, with the regular cast of Italians and Europeans thrown in. There was speculation that an older cardinal would be chosen, but at least for many the choice of John Paul’s inquisitor, a scholar with little pastoral experience and a member of the curia at that, would make the final cut. Where Karol Wojtyla was a virtual unknown at his election, we all knew who Joseph Ratzinger was.
John Paul II plays a significant role in this story, for his own reign casts a shadow over that of his successor. Ratzinger served John Paul as a kind of theological alter ego, the bad cop to John Paul’s good cop, and so our perceptions of him are likely colored by his famed encounters with Hans Küng, Charles Curran, and Leonardo Boff, among others. As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he was the church’s chief theologian, and in that capacity he oversaw the disciplining of wayward theologians and he also helped produce a new catechism for the church. An introvert and intellectual, more at home with books than with people, we learn from Gibson that Ratzinger was never comfortable with John Paul’s cult of the celebrity. For him Christ and the church was the center, not the papal personality, and this perception has and will influence his own actions as pope.
To understand Benedict is to understand his context. He is a Bavarian who came of age under Nazi rule. Like many his age he was in the German Army and even the Hitler Youth – to do otherwise was dangerous. But from a young age it was the church that held his attention, and so after the war he entered seminary and rose through the ranks of the German church, becoming one of the important theological experts at Vatican II, which he in its early years fully embraced. In time, however, he became disillusioned by what he perceived to be an overly modernist agenda (one that was connected to friends Küng and Rahner). We learn that Ratzinger was an Augustinian who disliked the Thomist agendas of his days. In many ways Ratzinger identified with the early Luther, of whom he was a student. He wanted reform but saw the touchstone of that reform not the modern world, but the ancient church, which he perceived to be less stained by corruption and closer to the truth.
In time Ratzinger came to believe that Vatican II, or at least the application of Vatican II went too far. His views were colored as well by the events he witnessed during his tenure at Tübingen University, a position that was provided to him by his friend and later theological opponent, Hans Küng. Marxist demonstrations and riots led to a strong antipathy to not only Marxism, but attempts to meld theology and social change, making Liberation Theology anathema. In this he was joined by John Paul, who viewed Marxism from the perspective of one who had experienced Communist repression in Poland. He would eventually leave Tübingen for the relative quiet of Regensburg University, where he could spend his days with his beloved books. That quiet would be broken by his appointment as Archbishop of Munich and then made a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1977, an appointment that brought him into the election of John Paul a year later, and then to his curial post as “defender of the faith.”

With a view forward from the past, Benedict is uncomfortable with political/religious collaboration, especially collaborations that will lead to social change. He will speak out on issues like abortion and homosexuality, but he sees them as matters of individual actions. Sin is individual, not systemic, and solutions are to be individual not systemic. His view of the world is also colored by past experience. While the church burgeons in the south, his focus is on Europe, which he perceives rightly to have been overtaken by secularism. The question is whether his solution is workable and whether the bulk of the Catholic Church is in agreement. Catholic unrest in America suggests that at least here and in Europe finds Benedict to be out of touch with their concerns.

What Gibson has done so very well is show us a Ratzinger whose view of the world is not only colored by his experiences, but by his theology. Whereas Aquinas had a forward looking, philosophically inclined theology of the church, Benedict’s Platonism sees the church as the true reflection of Christ. Even as Christ the ideal does not change, so the church as its image does not change. Individual church members may be sinners, but not the church. As for Vatican II, Benedict does not wish to over throw it – for it does reflect the thinking of the church – but he wants to reclaim it in a way that reflects his vision of the church – an Augustinian one to be sure. In due course, as well, we are given clues as to why Benedict likes the Latin Mass and wishes to have modern translations hue close to the Tridentine original.

Gibson’s book is full of helpful information that is presented in a way that is eloquent and gracious. He is open about his own viewpoint, so the reader can be aware that the author’s perspective is present. Yes, he would have preferred someone else, but makes it a point at being fair. Thus, especially for the Progressive Protestant, this is a must read book. If we are to be in conversation with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, we must understand the one who leads them, even if that reign is relatively brief. Even Protestants fell in love with John Paul, despite the fact that theologically and socially he was quite conservative. Benedict will not present to the broader world a fuzzy loving persona. As Gibson points out, for Benedict, love and truth are nearly identical, and truth for him is absolute.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Great review. It seems like this might be a good book for me as I try to learn more about the contemporary RCC.
Robert Cornwall said…
Reed,

I think you'll find it a very helpful book. Now, theologically, Gibson is on the progressive side of things. But I found him very fair to Benedict.

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