Pope Benedict XVI's Books?

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ThuriferAcolyte

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Has anyone read any of Pope Benedict’s books? Which one’s would you recommend? I briefly looked at a few on Amazon, and they all seem to have received great reviews, and many say that he isn’t difficult to understand. I’m definitely going to buy Jesus of Nazareth, but I’m curious about the other books that he has written, especially from an apologetics point of view.
 
The one on the Church Fathers is informative…easy to read. They are the transcriptions of his general audiences on this subject. Each ECF gets about 5 page treatment. Some have more than one, but in this way it is broken up nicely so you can just read one or two ECFs in a sitting pretty quick. :o
 
thanks everyone. Yes I’m DEFINITELY going to purchase Jesus of Nazareth, it looks really good. I’ll also look into The Fathers.

Has anyone read Introduction to Christianity, The Apostles, or Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church? I’m wondering about which one of those would be good to read before the others.

Thanks again!
 
ThuriferAcolyte said:
thanks everyone. Yes I’m DEFINITELY going to purchase Jesus of Nazareth, it looks really good. I’ll also look into The Fathers.

Has anyone read Introduction to Christianity, The Apostles, or Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church? I’m wondering about which one of those would be good to read before the others.

Thanks again!
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is really??Jesus of Nazareth, it looks really good,i just want to look look

http://www.photosnag.com/img/4673/n09x0302vnsn/clear.gif
 
“Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church”, “St. Paul”, and “The Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine” are all based on a sermon series given on Wednesdays over a several month period. Each chapter is only 5-8 pages long, since it is based on a sermon, but it makes for an easy, but theologically rich and informative read. These three books make a sort of trilogy together that takes one through a large number of the important figures of the early Church. (These books would fit VERY WELL after reading “Jesus of Nazareth” first!)

There are two versions of each of these books, one by Ignatius Press, and one by Our Daily Visitor. They are almost identical, but the Ignatius Press books seem to be printed on much higher quality paper and with a better binding. (“The Apostles” is the Our Daily Visitor version of “Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church”, and “The Fathers” is the Our Daily Visitor version of “The Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine”)
 
Jesus of Nazareth is a great read and I wholeheartedly endorse it, but I for one did not find it easy. For it to be easy (while still understanding why Benedict felt the way he did and not just what he felt), one would need a quite substantial background in philosophy.
 
Rolltide said:
“Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church”, “St. Paul”, and “The Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine” are all based on a sermon series given on Wednesdays over a several month period. Each chapter is only 5-8 pages long, since it is based on a sermon, but it makes for an easy, but theologically rich and informative read. These three books make a sort of trilogy together that takes one through a large number of the important figures of the early Church. (These books would fit VERY WELL after reading “Jesus of Nazareth” first!)

There are two versions of each of these books, one by Ignatius Press, and one by Our Daily Visitor. They are almost identical, but the Ignatius Press books seem to be printed on much higher quality paper and with a better binding. (“The Apostles” is the Our Daily Visitor version of “Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church”, and “The Fathers” is the Our Daily Visitor version of “The Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine”)
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Yes, I was going to add that disclaimer as well. No need to buy two books with the same content. 🙂 (FYI, it’s Our Sunday Visitor)

I have collected and organized the links to these general audiences on my Catechesis of the Popes website. Just in case you feel like trying before you buy. 🙂
 
Eucharisted said:
Jesus of Nazareth!
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Great book, it has changed the way I look at the Eucharist and the presence of Christ in the tabernacle. In addition, one of the most compelling passages is when the Pope discusses Jesus and when he is talking to the Pharisees. Jesus was telling them that the Kingdom of God was at hand. Through the Popes explanations, I could imagine the whole host of Heaven as surrounding and emanating from Jesus. I visualized the grandeur of what it would have appeared if one could actually see this event. Amazing to think that the Pharisees could not even see it when Jesus was addressing them.
 
I hwholeheartedly recommend all of B16s books. I’ve read the Apostles, the Church Fathers and Jesus of Nazareth plus his encyclicals. Benedict is a great teacher.
 
ThuriferAcolyte said:
thanks everyone. Yes I’m DEFINITELY going to purchase Jesus of Nazareth, it looks really good. I’ll also look into The Fathers.

Has anyone read Introduction to Christianity, The Apostles, or Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church? I’m wondering about which one of those would be good to read before the others.

Thanks again!
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I’ve made it about half way through Intro to Christianity after trying a couple of times. It really isn’t much of an intro and more an in depth philosophical book.

“The Apostles” was good, a fairly easy read in short bits. “Questions and Answers” is another good easy read.

“The Ratzinger Report,” “Salt of the Earth,” and “God and the World” are all interviews with the Holy Father before he was the Holy Father. I’ve read the last and it was good medium difficulty read.

“The Spirit of the Liturgy” is another good book that was written before he was the Pope. I’d also put it in the middle of the road as far as difficulty.
 
Intro to Christianity is really hard going, unless you were a philosophy major or a theology major. It’s an introductory book only to folks like that.

Basically, the man writes three kinds of books. His homilies and talks and interviews are very accessible. His crazy hard academic books are full of technical terms that are only understood by hardcore theologians. Other than Intro to Christianity, you can’t usually get them, though. (Anything you can buy for a reasonable price is probably reasonably accessible.)

The third kind of book, his more accessible theology books (like Spirit of the Liturgy), tend to start slow. Stick with it. Usually, he likes to lay out a summary of the state of the art or go through about three different sets of comments. Then all of a sudden he starts to draw everything together to make something interesting. From then on, the books usually move along at a good pace, and are full of interesting stuff.

Good luck, and enjoy!
 
I’m just starting with the Pope’s (written still as a Cardinal) Truth and Tolerance: Christian Beliefs and World Religions. I picked that one up because I was quite interested to see how he sees the unity and diversity of world religions, the truth of Christianity, and the place of tolerance. Quite interesting so far, at least from my viewpoint. I just need to discipline myself and quit reading sporadically.
 
ThuriferAcolyte said:
thanks everyone. Yes I’m DEFINITELY going to purchase Jesus of Nazareth, it looks really good. I’ll also look into The Fathers.

Has anyone read Introduction to Christianity, The Apostles, or Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church? I’m wondering about which one of those would be good to read before the others.

Thanks again!
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I’d say Jesus of Nazareth is a good start, then Intro, then the series on the Apostles and Fathers.
 
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