By Russell Shaw

Pope Benedict searches 'for the face of the Lord'

'Jesus of Nazareth' is pontiff's first personal book since his election to the Chair of Peter

In his intellectually and stylistically elegant new book "Jesus of Nazareth" (Doubleday, $24.95), Pope Benedict XVI offers a powerful response to an old question: If someone looks deeply into the heart of Christianity, what will he find there -- the Jesus of History or the Christ of Faith?

Wrong question, Pope Benedict says in effect. There is only one Jesus Christ -- the extraordinary individual, Son of Man and Son of God, of whose words and deeds the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John give truthful accounts. Separating Jesus as he was from the Christ in whom Christians believe -- opposing facts to faith -- is a betrayal of both.

Released in mid-April in German, Italian, Polish and Greek, "Jesus of Nazareth" made its eagerly anticipated debut in English on May 15 and is appearing in nearly 20 other languages besides. The book was worth waiting for. Written by a gifted theologian, it deftly combines spiritual testimony and scholarship.

Longtime debate

Though far from being polemical, the volume enters vigorously into a debate under way for two centuries. The argument focuses on the phrase "Jesus of History-Christ of Faith."

The expression was popularized by liberal Protestantism in the 19th century and eventually seeped into the vocabulary of some Catholics. Although it can have an orthodox sense, carried to extremes it implies a split between the man Jesus of Nazareth, supposedly concealed from us by the myths his early followers spun, and a nebulously divine figure on whom Christians project their subjective religious feelings.

In contrast with this kind of thinking, Pope Benedict says the Gospels present "the real, 'historical' Jesus in the strict sense of the word."

"I am convinced, and I hope the reader will be, too, that this figure is much more logical and, historically speaking, much more intelligible than the reconstructions we have been presented with in the last decades," he writes.

Distinguished addition

Written by Pope Benedict largely in his free time since becoming pope, "Jesus of Nazareth" is the first volume in a projected two-volume work on Christ. Publishing it now reflects this 80-year-old author's judgment that it makes more sense for him to issue it by itself than wait until he finishes its companion.

The book stands in a line of distinguished Christological studies produced during the past century by German Catholic scholars like Karl Adam, Romano Guardini and Cardinal Walter Kasper, who now serves in Pope Benedict's Curia as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

It expresses sincere appreciation for Scripture scholarship, including the historical-critical method, which is anathema with some conservatives but which the Pope calls an "indispensable" tool for understanding the Bible, though hardly the only one. The method involves using historical sciences to determine the circumstances in which texts were written and their authors' intentions.

Cited in the book's bibliography as a "model" of the approach is "A Marginal Jew," a multivolume work by the American Father John Meier, which caused a stir in some conservative quarters when the first volume appeared in 1991. Also listed in the pope's selective bibliography is "The Gospel According to St. John" by Father Raymond Brown, another American scholar viewed askance by some conservative critics.

Here, then, is no biblical fundamentalist at work. Yet Pope Benedict insists that the Gospels tell of events -- including Jesus' miracles -- that actually took place, words that really were spoken, teachings that truly were taught. These accounts are valuable not just for what they disclose about Jesus' impact on the early Christians but for what they tell us directly about him.

Seeing the Father

The book's central theme is that Christ's words and deeds reveal the Father because of their unique relationship, summed up in his description of himself as Son. In him God the Father "shows us his face. ... In what Jesus does and wills, we come to know the mind and will of God himself." And because he is man as well as God, what he says and does also reveals humanity at its best.

Thus, Pope Benedict writes that in the Lord's Prayer "Jesus ... involves us in his own prayer; he leads us into the interior dialogue of triune love; he draws our human hardships deep into God's heart ... . The Our Father does not project a human image onto heaven, but shows us from heaven -- from Jesus -- what we as human beings can and should be like."

This volume reflects on the major elements of Christ's public life. Volume two will cover his death and resurrection as well as the infancy narratives. The author repeatedly cites the Fathers and doctors of the Church, theologians and Scripture commentators of past and present and documents of the magisterium, in a kind of continuing dialogue with his colleagues and peers. Along with theology and exegesis, he offers countless insights into spirituality and the life of prayer.

"Jesus of Nazareth" is often eloquent and always clear, but it does not oversimplify its lofty subject or talk down to readers. Pope Benedict stresses that the book is not an exercise of papal teaching authority but an expression of his "personal search 'for the face of the Lord'." The point is underlined on the title page, where the author is identified as "Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI."

"Everyone is free ... to contradict me," he modestly remarks. But wise readers will seek to learn rather than contradict. "Jesus of Nazareth" is a classic in the making.

Russell Shaw is a contributing editor to OSV.