Overview

A vivid blow-by-blow of the controversies that have wracked the Catholic Church during the past twenty yearsLiberation theology, birth control, women's ordination, inclusive language, ""radical feminism,"" homosexuality, religious pluralism, human rights in the church, and the roles of bishops and theologians-one man has stood at the dead center of all these controversial issues: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. A teenage American POW as the Third Reich crumbled and a progressive wunderkind at the Second Vatican Council, Ratzinger, for twenty years, has been head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (until 1908 known as the Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, or Holy Office). The book goes a long way toward explaining the central enigma surrounding Ratzinger: How did this erstwhile liberal end up as the chief architect of the third great wave of repression in Catholic theology in the twentieth century? Based on extensive interviews with Ratzinger's students and colleagues, as well as research in archives in both Bavaria and the United States, Allen's account shows that Ratzinger's deep suspicion of ""the world,"" his preoccupation with human sinfulness, and his demand for rock-solid loyalty to the church run deep. They reach into his childhood ""in the shadow of the Nazis"" and reflect his formative theological influences: Augustine, Bonaventure, and Martin Luther(!) rather than the world-affirming Thomas Aquinas. When the cardinals of the Catholic Church next gather in the Sistine Chapel to elect a pope, Allen argues, they will in effect be deciding whether to continue the policies Ratzinger has been the central force in shaping.""The servility of the sycophants, of those who shy from and shun every collision, who prize above all their calm complacency, is not true obedience. . . . What the church needs today as always are not adulators to extol the status quo, but men whose humility and obedience are not less than their passion for the truth; . . .men who love the church more than the ease and the unruffled course of their personal destiny.""-Joseph Ratzinger (1962)

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9780826413611

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Reviews

"""'A fair and unfailingly interesting account of one of the most controversial figures in religion today' The Irish Times 'Elegantly written and throughout its eight chapters engages one's interest. It never indulges in facile stereotypes. While being critical, Allen fully respects Ratzinger's stature as a theologian and intellectual. With verve, he traces the formation of one of the most controversial prelates in recent times' The Furrow 'We needed a book which was well researched, informative and analytic, adequately critical, yet thoroughly and determinedly fair. John Allen has given us just such a book' The Tablet 'Full of important information about Ratzinger career and changes of position... his most original contribution is to argue that Ratzinger sometimes promotes views even more conservative than the Pope's.' New York Review of Books 'It is not just because of the position he has occupied since 1981 as head of what used to be the Holy Office that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is a key figure in the development of the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II... John L. Allen puts us all in his debt by tracing how this has come about... The resulting book is essential reading.' Church Times"""

'A fair and unfailingly interesting account of one of the most controversial figures in religion today' The Irish Times 'Elegantly written and throughout its eight chapters engages one's interest. It never indulges in facile stereotypes. While being critical, Allen fully respects Ratzinger's stature as a theologian and intellectual. With verve, he traces the formation of one of the most controversial prelates in recent times' The Furrow 'We needed a book which was well researched, informative and analytic, adequately critical, yet thoroughly and determinedly fair. John Allen has given us just such a book' The Tablet 'Full of important information about Ratzinger career and changes of position... his most original contribution is to argue that Ratzinger sometimes promotes views even more conservative than the Pope's.' New York Review of Books 'It is not just because of the position he has occupied since 1981 as head of what used to be the Holy Office that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is a key figure in the development of the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II... John L. Allen puts us all in his debt by tracing how this has come about... The resulting book is essential reading.' Church Times

Author Information

John Allen is still the Rome bureau chief for the National Catholic Reporter and CNN's on-camera expert on the death of JP II and the elction of the new pope. He is the author of the definitive Enlish-language biography of Cardinal Ratzinger (Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith, Continuum, 2000). Since then he has published 2 books with Doubleday: Conlave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election (2002) and All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks (2004). From 1993-96, he ran the journalism program at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. During that time the student newspaper consistently ranked in the top ten in the nation and dozens of his students won national writing awards. He holds an M.A. in religious studies from the University of Kansas.

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