Joseph Ratzinger - God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald

GOD AND THE WORLD

JOSEPH CARDINAL RATZINGER

Believing and Living in Our Time

A Conversation with Peter Seewald

Translated by Henry Taylor

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Title of the German original:
Gott und die Welt: Glauben und Leben in unserer Zeit
Ein Gesprch mit Peter Seewald
2000 DeutscheVerlags-Amtalt, Stuttgart, Munich

Cover art; Creation of Adam :
Detail of Adam (Detail of the Siscme chapel ceiling)
Michaelangelo (1475-1564)
Vatican Palace, Vatican City State
Copyright Scala / Art Resource, New York

Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum

2002 Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-0-89870-868-4
Library of Congress Control Number 2002105231
Printed in the United States of America

3. CREATION

In the Beginning Was the Word

The Crown of Creation

So-Called Evil

Heaven and Hell

The Tree of Life

4. ORDER IN CREATION

The Fundamental Evidence of the Universe

5. THE TWO TESTAMENTS

The Old Covenant

The Book of Books

6. THE LAW

The Four Laws

The Ten Commandments

7. LOVE

The Meaning of Life

How Do We Learn to Love

Aspects of Love

Part II: JESUS CHRIST

JesusAn Invention?

8. REVELATION

Prophets and Heralds

Did God Correct Himself?

9. THE LIGHT

The Most Important Moment in History

Light of the World

II. What Did Christ Bring to Earth?

Good News

10. THE WAY

Gospels and Gospel Writers

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Who Was Jesus Really?

The Multiplication of Loaves

Jesus and Women

The Meeting

The Wilderness

Power and Possessions

11. THE TRUTH

Son of God

The Trinity

Our Father

The Father-Son Principle

12. LIFE

The Life of Man

The Jesus Principle

True and False Cares Judging

The Two Ways

The False Prophets

13. THE MOTHER OP GOD

Ave Maria

Dogmas

The Miracles

Mercy

The Rosary

14. THE CROSS

INRIThe Passion of the Lord

The Resurrection

Part III: THE CHURCH

15. THE SPIRIT

How It All Started

The Essential Nature of the Church

The Heart of the Church

The Task of the Church

God and the Church

16. SPIRITUAL GIFTS

The Primitive Church

Paul

Mission

The Pope

The Network of the Church

17. THE SACRAMENTS

The Design for Life

Enlightenment

Maturity

The Most Sacred Action at the Most Sacred Place

The Liturgy

Guilt and Reconciliation

Marriage

Priests

Dying

18. THE FUTURE

National Church or Minority Church?

John Paul II

The Universal Church in the Future

Christian Unity

New Dangers for Faith

A Renaissance of Spirituality

Honesty

Preface

By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

In 1996 Peter Seewald suggested we have a conversation about the questions that people today put to the Church and that are often for them an obstacle on the path to faith. That was the origin of the book Salt of the Earth , which many welcomed with gratitude as a practical help in getting their bearings.

Because of the widespread and surprisingly positive response to this book, Mr. Seewald was prompted to suggest a second session of conversations, with a view to illuminating the inner questions of faith, an area that strikes many Christians as an impenetrable jungle in which one can hardly find ones way. Much of this, even what is important for the Christian, seems in the light of modern thought difficult to understand or to accept.

The overwhelming demands of my official work prevented this at first. What little free time I had at my disposal, I wanted to devote to writing a book about the spirit of the liturgy, which I had had in mind since the beginning of the eighties but had never been able to get down on paper. This work was finally put together in the course of three summer holidays and appeared at the beginning of this year [2000]. So at last I had time free for the second conversation with Seewald, for which he had suggested we meet in the richly symbolic abbey of Monte Cassino, motherhouse of the Benedictine order. There, strengthened by the Benedictine hospitality, we held our new interchange, which Mr. Seewald had prepared with great care. I had to rely on the inspiration of the moment.

The quiet of the monastery, the friendliness of the monks and of their abbot, the atmosphere of prayer, and the reverent celebration of the liturgy helped us a great deal; and as it turned out, we were able to celebrate with appropriate splendor the feast of Saint Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict. So the monks of Monte Cassino have the thanks of both authors, who experienced this venerable site as a place of inspiration.

I probably do not need to point out that each of the two writers speaks for himself and makes his own contribution Just as in Salt of the Earth , so too hereit seems to mea real dialogue developed from the differing backgrounds and ways of thinking, in which the unsparing directness of the questions and answers proved fruitful. Mr. Seewald, who tape-recorded my answers, undertook the work of transcription and any necessary editing. For my part, I read through my answers with a critical eye and although, where this seemed necessary, I have smoothed out the language or here and there made minor additions, as a whole I have left the spoken word as it stood, just as the challenge of the moment called forth. I hope this second book of dialogue will find just as friendly a reception as Salt of the Earth and that it will be of some help to many of those people who are seeking to understand the Christian faith.

Rome, August 22, 2000

Preface

By Peter Seewald

Monte Cassino, early in the year. The road snaking up to the Abbey of Saint Benedict was steep and narrow, and the higher we climbed, the colder the air became. No one said anything, not even Alfredo, the Cardinals chauffeur. I dont knowwinter was definitely past, but somehow we seemed to be worrying about the cold nights that were still to come.

When, together with Cardinal Ratzinger, I published the book-length interview Salt of the Earth , many people took the opportunity to go into a subject they had hitherto found inaccessible. The name of God was indeed more current than it had ever been, but actually people no longer knew what they were talking about when they talked about religion. I experienced this when talking with friends or among the staff of the magazine for which I worked. Within a short period of time, something like a spiritual nuclear attack had befallen large sections of society, a sort of Big Bang of the Christian culture that was our foundation. Even if people did not deny the existence of God, no one still counted on the fact that he had any power in the world, or could actually do anything.

At this period I used to visit a church every now and then. Although I had doubts and mistrusted messages of salvation, it still seemed to me beyond contradiction that the world was no accident nor the result of an explosion or something like that, as Marx and others maintained. And certainly not the creation of man, who can neither cure the common cold nor stop a dam from breaking. I became aware that behind the web of worship, prayer, and commandments there had to be some truth. We have not followed some cleverly concocted story, it says in one of the Letters of the apostles. But it would have seemed stupid to me to start making the sign of the cross or some gesture of humility such as people usually make during Mass. And whenever I looked around inside a church, I could no longer read the meaning of all that was there. The essential thing, the meaning of it all, seemed to be hidden as if behind a veil of fog.