By John Hooper
The Guardian
March 10, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/10/pope-vigilance-latest-book
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| Pope Benedict's new book says 'drowsiness' of disciples allows people to remain undisturbed by injustice and suffering. |
Pope Benedict has made a call for vigilance in his latest book that will have particular resonance in the context of the clerical sex abuse that was widely ignored in his church.
Reflecting on Jesus's admonition to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane to "remain here, and watch", the pope says "it also points ahead to the later history of Christianity".
"Across the centuries, it is the drowsiness of the disciples that opens up possibilities for the power of the Evil One. Such drowsiness deadens the soul, so that it remains undisturbed by the power of the Evil One at work in the world and by all the injustice and suffering ravaging the earth."
The book, Jesus of Nazareth. Holy Week. From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, is the second part of a projected three-volume work on the founder of Christianity. The pope clearly regards it as the most important: he describes it in the foreword as being devoted to "the decisive sayings and events of Jesus's life".
It has an opening print run of 1.2m copies and is translated into seven languages.
Extracts released before Thursday's publication, revealed that the book includes a detailed refutation of the idea that the Jews were collectively responsible for the death of Jesus. That view was disowned by the Roman Catholic church in 1965, but this is thought to be the first time a pope has assailed the idea in such a comprehensive manner.
Giuseppe Costa, the director of the Vatican's publishing house, told the papal daily, L'Osservatore Romano, that the pope's latest book on Jesus had attracted more interest than the first, published in 2007. He said deals had been signed with 22 publishers around the world and "we are still in negotiation with others".
One of the aims of the series is to close the gap that modern theological scholarship has opened between the Jesus of the gospels, often termed the "Christ of Faith", and the historical Jesus who lived and died in Roman Palestine.
"The New Testament message is not simply an idea," the pope writes. "Essential to it is the fact that these events actually occurred in the history of this world: biblical faith does not recount stories as symbols of meta-historical truths; rather, it bases itself upon history that unfolded upon this earth."
In support of his views, the German professor-pontiff draws on a deep well of scholarship. Perhaps only Benedict among recent popes could refer blithely to the "parallelism typical of Hebrew poetry". His sources range from the third-century ecclesiastic St Cyprian of Carthage to the 20th century French chronologist Annie Jaubert and from Blaise Pascal to Karl Marx.
Though a traditionalist in many respects, the former Joseph Ratzinger is happy to accept the overturning of long-held assumptions when the evidence against them is convincing. He is clear, for example, that the two "robbers" crucified with Jesus were Jewish "resistance fighters" who were executed by the Romans for sedition.
But he is equally adamant in dismissing the idea that Jesus himself was a political revolutionary, as asserted by liberation theologians. "Jesus's whole ministry and his message … point in a radically different direction," the pope argues.
Giuseppe Costa said the pope had written the book entirely in pencil in his "unmistakably tiny handwriting" and that the manuscript had been typed into a computer by an assistant, Birgit Wansing.
In the preface, the 83-year-old Benedict says he intends rounding off the series with a "small monologue" on the gospel infancy narratives, but only "if I am given the strength".
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