Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Jesus, not only from the positivist historical-critical perspective, but trying to "get closer" to the Redeemer, seeing in Jesus the Saviour, beyond the historical figure. This is the main theme of the second volume of the pope on Jesus, presented today at the Vatican. It also takes on a very special significance given that the book, which deals with the central events of Jesus' life - from the entrance into Jerusalem, the passion, death and resurrection – has been published at the beginning of Lent, a time of "rediscovery and deepening of personal faith", according to Benedict XVI.Edited by Libreria Editrice Vaticana (Vatican Publishing House) in seven languages, 1.2 million the initial print, 300 000 in Italian, already sold out, with a further 400 000 already booked, the approximately 350 pages are an effort to intelligently reconcile faith and reason, in our search for the 'real' Jesus, not the "historic" strand dominant in critical exegesis, but the "Jesus of the Gospels" heard in communion with the disciples of Jesus in every age, and thus also to arrive at the certainty of the truly historic figure of Jesus. "
"One thing is clear to me- we read in the foreword of the book - in 200 years of exegetical work, historical-critical exegesis has already yielded its essential fruit. If scholarly exegesis is not to exhaust itself in constantly new hypotheses, becoming theologically irrelevant, it must take a methodological discipline, without abandoning its historical character. It must learn that the positivistic hermeneutic on which it has been based does not constitute the only valid and definitively evolved rational approach; rather, it constitutes a specific and historically conditioned form of rationality that is both open to correction and completion and in need of it. It must recognise that a properly developed faith-hermeneutic is appropriate to the text and can be combined with a historical hermeneutic, aware of its limits, so as to form a methodological whole."
Signed, as before, "Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict XVI" to highlight that this is not a work of papal Magisterium, but the reflections of a "believer", "Jesus of Nazareth. The entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection" offers itself, therefore, to the comment and interpretation of theologians, and perhaps even more, of those who will seek to encounter a well known "figure ", but one we never tire of discovering. The risen Jesus, in fact, for the Pope "is not a reanimated corpse", but "new life", his resurrection", a "chance that involves us all and opens up a new kind of future".
"Although it is very dense - commented Cardinal Marc Ouellet at the presentation today- this book stands on its own without interruption. Through the nine chapters and the final prospectus, the reader is transported along steep paths to a thrilling encounter with Jesus, a familiar figure who appears to be even closer to us in his humanity as his divinity. On finishing the book, you want to continue the dialogue, not only with the author but with Him of whom he speaks. Jesus of Nazareth is more than a book, it is a moving, fascinating and liberating testimony".
As to its content, there is "the first question of the historical foundation of Christianity through the two-volume work, then the question of Jesus' Messiahship, followed by the atonement of sins by the Redeemer, which is a problem for many theologians and likewise the question of the priesthood of Christ in relation to his kingship and his sacrifice that are so important to the Catholic concept of priesthood and of the Holy Eucharist, the last issue of the resurrection of Jesus, his relationship to the body and its bond with the founding of the Church".
Of note, finally, that in the preface the Pope announced, another "small facile, if I will still be given the strength", which will focus on the childhood of Jesus.