Here is an article, bringing us up to date on the publishing of the Opera Omnia of Josef Ratzinger, which includes Pope Benedict's preface to the second published volume of the collected works. It comes from Sandro Magister at http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/?eng=y
A Newly Published Work by Ratzinger the Theologian. From 54 Years Ago, But Always Relevant
It is his doctoral thesis on Saint Bonaventure and the theology of history. With the backdrop of the Joachim of Fiore''s vision of a new and completely "spiritual" Church. The complete text of the preface written recently by the pope by Sandro Magister
ROME, September 18, 2009 – The publication in German of Joseph Ratzinger's "opera omnia" is moving forward fast. The first of the sixteen volumes planned came out less than a year ago. The second was presented to its author on Sunday, September 13, at Castel Gandolfo (see photo). A third will come out in November.
Interest in the first volume – properly speaking, the eleventh volume in the general outline – was increased by the author's desire to republish first his writings on the liturgy, which in the preface he calls "the central activity of my life."The interest of this second volume lies, instead, in the fact that it finally brings to the printing press a text by Ratzinger that until now had never been published in its entirety: the thesis that he presented in 1955 in order to be allowed teach theology in the German universities.After his first studies on Saint Augustine, it was suggested to the young theologian Ratzinger that he research the most Augustinian of the medieval theologians, the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, and in particular his ideas concerning divine revelation and the theology of history.
Ratzinger dug deep in his research. And he discovered that in Bonaventure, there is a strong connection with the vision of Joachim of Fiore, the Franciscan who had prophesied the imminent advent of a third age after those of the Father and the Son, an age of the Spirit, with a renewed and entirely "spiritual" Church, poor, reconciled with Greeks and Jews, in a world restored to peace.
One of the examiners, professor Michael Schmaus, didn't like the thesis. But Ratzinger avoided rejection by representing only the second part of his text, which had not received any objections. In later years, he resolved to produce a new and updated publication of the entire thesis, but was unable to do so. As cardinal, he resolved to work on it in his retirement. But then he was elected pope, and the project was inevitably scrapped.
Republished now in its original and complete version, the thesis seems to have been superseded here and there by later studies. Ratzinger realizes that. But he maintains that "the question of the essence of Revelation, which is the theme of the book, still has urgency today, perhaps even more so than in the past."
In reading his preface to this second volume of the "opera omnia" – reproduced further below – it can be grasped that Benedict XVI still sees as relevant the challenge that Bonaventure had to confront as superior general of the Franciscan order: the "dramatic tension between the 'realists', who wanted to make use of the legacy of Saint Francis according to the concrete possibilities of the life of the order as it had been handed down, and the 'spiritualists', who instead focused on the radical novelty of a new historical period.
"Henri De Lubac, one of the greatest Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, dedicated an imposing two-volume essay to what he called "the intellectual posterity of Joachim of Fiore."In the judgment of De Lubac, Joachim's vision – the friar "endowed with prophetic spirit" whom Dante placed in Paradise – has spanned the centuries and continues to influence a large portion of today's culture, including Catholic culture: a culture that dreams of "a new Church in which love must replace the law."The exact opposite of that "Caritas in Veritate" which provides the title for Benedict XVI's latest encyclical, and informs his entire magisterium.
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Preface to the second volume of my writings
by Joseph Ratzinger
After the publication of my writings on the liturgy, there now follows in the general edition of my works a book with the theological studies on the great Franciscan and doctor of the Church Bonaventure Fidanza. From the beginning, it was evident that this work would also contain my studies on the holy doctor's concept of Revelation, conducted from 1953-1955 together with the interpretation of his theology of history, but unpublished before now.In order to complete this work, the manuscript needed to be revised and corrected according to modern editorial standards, something that I did not feel capable of doing. Professor Marianne Schlosser, who has an extensive knowledge of medieval theology and of the works of Saint Bonaventure in particular, graciously offered to undertake this necessary and certainly not easy work. For this I must thank her from the bottom of my heart. Discussing the project, we immediately agreed that no attempt should be made to revise the book's content and bring the research up to date. More than half a century after the writing of the text, in practice this would have meant writing a new book. Moreover, I wanted this to be an "historical" edition, which would offer in its original condition a text elaborated a long time ago, leaving to research the possibility of finding value in it still today. The editorial work is the subject of the introduction by Professor Schlosser, who together with her coworkers has invested a great deal of time and effort in the production of an historical edition of the text, confiding in the fact that theologically and historically, it was worthwhile to make it available to all in its entirety. In the second part of the book, "The Theology of History in St. Bonaventure" is presented again as it was published in 1959. The essays that follow it are taken, with few exceptions, from the study of the interpretation of Revelation and of the theology of history. In some cases, they have been adapted to make them self-contained texts, with slight modifications according to the context.I had to give up temporarily the idea of updating the manuscript and presenting it as a book for the public, as well as the project of a scholarly commentary on the "Hexameron," because the work of being an expert adviser at the council and the requirements of my teaching position were so demanding as to make medieval research unthinkable. In the postconciliar period, the changed theological situation and the new situation in the German university absorbed me so completely that I delayed the work on Bonaventure until after my retirement. In the meantime, the Lord has led me along a different path, so the book is now being published in its present form. I hope that others will take on the task of commenting on the "Hexameron."
At first, the presentation of the theme of this work might seem surprising, and in fact it is. After my thesis on the conception of the Church in Saint Augustine, my teacher Gottlieb Söhngen suggested to me that I dedicate myself to the Middle Ages, and in particular to the figure of Saint Bonaventure, who was the most significant representative of the Augustinian movement in medieval theology.As for the content, I had to face the second important question addressed by fundamental theology, meaning the theme of Revelation. At that time, in particular because of the famous work by Oscar Cullmann "Christus und die Zeit [Christ and time] (Zürich, 1946), the theme of salvation history, especially its relationship with the metaphysical, had become the focal point of theological interest. If neo-Scholastic theology essentially understood Revelation as the divine transmission of mysteries, which remain inaccessible to the human mind, today Revelation is considered as God's manifestation of himself in an historical action, and salvation history is seen as a central element of Revelation. My task was to try to discover how Bonaventure understood Revelation, and if for him there was anything like an idea of "salvation history."
It was a difficult task. Medieval theology does not provide any treatises "de Revelatione," on Revelation, as is the case with modern theology. Moreover, I immediately demonstrated that medieval theology also does not have any term for expressing, from the perspective of content, our modern concept of Revelation. The word "revelatio," which is common in neo-Scholastic and medieval theology, does not mean, as has been demonstrated, the same thing in medieval and modern theology. For this reason, I had to seek the answers to my framing of the problem in other forms of language and thought, and even modify this framing with respect to my first approach of Bonaventure's works. In the first place, difficult research had to be done on his language. I had to set aside our concepts in order to understand what Bonaventure meant by Revelation. In any case, it has been demonstrated that the conceptual content of Revelation was adapted to a great number of concepts: "revelatio," "manifestatio," "doctrina," "fides," and so forth. Only a vision of the entire scope of these concepts and their usage brings an understanding of the idea of Revelation in Bonaventure.
The fact that medieval theology had no concept of "salvation history" in the current sense of the term was clear from the beginning. Nonetheless, two indications demonstrate that the problem of revelation as an historical journey was present in Bonaventure.In the first place, Revelation was was presented as the dual figure of the Old and New Testament, which posed the question of the harmony between the unity of truth and the diversity of historical mediation, raised since the patristic era and then addressed again by the medieval theologians.
To this classic form of the problem of the relationship between history and truth, which Bonaventure shared with the theology of his time and addressed in his own way, he also adds the novelty of his historical point of view, in which history, which is the unfolding of the divine work, becomes a dramatic challenge.Joachim of Fiore (died 1202) had taught about a Trinitarian rhythm in history. The age of the Father (Old Testament) and the age of the Son (New Testament, Church) had to be followed by an age of the Holy Spirit, in which observance of the Sermon on the Mount would produce a spirit of poverty, reconciliation between Greeks and Latins, reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and a time of peace. Through a combination of symbolic numbers, the erudite abbot had predicted the beginning of a new age in 1260. Around 1240, the Franciscan movement ran across these writings, which had an electric effect on many: had this age not begun, perhaps, with Saint Francis of Assisi? For this reason, a dramatic tension was created within the Order between the "realists," who wanted to make use of the legacy of Saint Francis according to the concrete possibilities of the life of the Order as it had been handed down, and the "spiritualists," who instead focused on the radical novelty of a new historical period.
As minister general of the Order, Bonaventure had to confront the enormous challenge of this tension, which for him was not an academic question, but a concrete problem of his post as the seventh successor of Saint Francis. In this sense, history was suddenly tangible as reality, and as such had to be faced with real action and theological reflection. In my studies, I tried to explain the manner in which Bonaventure approached this challenge and made the connection between salvation history and Revelation.I had not read the text since 1962. So it was exciting for me to reread it after such a long time. It is clear that the framing of the problem and the language of the book were influenced by the situation in the 1950's. Especially in the case of linguistic studies, the technical means that we have now did not exist. For this reason, the work has its limits, and it is evidently influenced by the historical period in which it was conceived. Nonetheless, in rereading it I got the impression that its answers are well-founded, although it has been superseded in many of its details, and that it still has something to say today. Above all I realized that the question of the essence of Revelation and the fact of posing it again, which is the theme of the book, still have urgency today, perhaps even more so than in the past.At the end of this preface, I would like to thank, in addition to Professor Schlosser, the bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who by founding the Institut Papst Benedikt XVI has made the publication of this work possible, and actively followed the editing of my writings. I also thank the collaborators of the Institute, Professor Rudolf Voderholzer, Christian Schaller, Franz-Xaver Heibl, and Gabriel Weiten. Last but not least I thank the publishing house Herder, which worked on the publication of this book with its characteristic accuracy.
I dedicate the work to my brother Georg for his eighty-fifth birthday, thankful for a lifelong communion of thought and activity.Rome, solemnity of the Ascension of Christ, 2009.
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The summaries of the first three volumes of the "opera omnia" by Joseph Ratzinger," on the website of the publisher Herder:
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