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The first book of Pope Benedict I read was "Behold the Pierced One." When I read it, I knew that here was a scholar who believed. And could talk to the scholarly types, and communicate to the likes of me at the same time. I knew I would have loved to have been one of his students when he still taught.
I have read several of his books since then. I've been waiting for this one, and have pre-ordered it
Second, there is a disturbing tone in the article that suggests that Magisterial teaching is somehow less than welcome. That it impinges on our "freedom." This is foolish, and is certainly not a proposition that Josef Ratzinger would buy into. The more staightforward explanation for the non-magesterial nature of the publication, is simply that it is a work of research, historical and theological. Of course, the issues of theology embodied in the work, and the opposition to the positions of the so-called "Jesus Seminar" type historical research, is already taught magisterially in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
I am looking forward to reading this. I got to attend a papal audience in Rome two weeks ago and see BXVI in person. One thing that struck me is that he is a person of great dignity - but enormously humble. The crowd (of 10,000!) went wild when he came in, and kept cheering for him and calling out to him, and it was interesting to me that a person who is in many ways very self-effacing is loved so. He does nothing dramatic and makes no grand gestures, but people trust him and respond to him.
And then everybody listened silently and intently to his homily and his words to us in our native languages, because we recognized him as a teacher of the truth.
I thought that I couldn't love any pope the way I loved John Paul the Great. But I was wrong. God is so merciful.