8474908051

Vatican City.

A memoir of now-Pope Benedict XVI's first 50 years. It's not clear that this was intended for a general audience--Ratzinger seems to have had in mind a reader familiar with Church infrastructure, politics, and historical and contemporary writers (not just those of the stature of Aquinas, but many others whose perspectives are not adequately explained). While Ratzinger's narrative of the Church is interesting, especially in relation to his participation in Vatican II, I can only follow most of it passively.

This memoir is more of an account (and then this happened... and then this... ) than a narrative (and then because that happened, this happened). The points at which a causal sequence of events are identified (I studied this, then was employed to teach it) are generally career-oriented. I found myself wishing for more about Ratzinger's emotions and thoughts. While there is some representation of this more personal aspect of his life, it tends to be told, not shown, asserted but not elaborated upon. In particular, I would have liked to know more about how his dislike for the Nazi regime and his forced servitude as a teenager affected his understanding of authority and ideology. I also would have liked more childhood photos, if they exist; oddly, the book includes a large number of photos from after 1977, when its account ends.

The most interesting aspect of the memoir was the opportunity to read Ratzinger's passionate convictions on the nature of revelation, which help me to understand an aspect of Church doctrine and religious belief that I find puzzling. ( )

If Ratzinger weren't pope now, or hadn't been so long at the head of the CDF, nobody would read this book. Ratzinger is many things, including a brilliant academic, but he's a very dry memoirist. His memoir is short (156 pages in the Ignatius edition), and feels even shorter. Much is left out. Much is skimmed over. We don't really get a sense of Ratzinger the man, unless he really is as dry as his memoir. Frankly, I doubt it.

The first two-thirds are taken up by life until the Council. I found it pretty boring. His account of National Socialism and the War itself contain some memorable incidents, but they are not narrated terribly well. While the practice of insinuating that Ratzinger was a "Nazi" is unfair in the extreme, his treatment of the war certainly doesn't conform to contemporary expectations. So, for example, while he is eloquent on the Jewish basis of Christianity, he never really mentions Nazi's policy toward Jews directly.

The last half of the book is taken up with the Council and after, with Benedict increasingly opposed to the reigning "liberal" consensus. His account of liturgical changes is particularly strident, biased and disquieting. Ratzinger was a theologian profoundly out of step with Catholic thought. But for the long pontificate of John Paul II, whose turned out a lot more conservative than expected, he would have remained so.

Ratzinger's interviews make for good reading. He is an interesting, thoughtful individual when the topic is an idea. But he's not a very good memoirist. ( )