Joseph Ratzinger's Anthropological Writings for "Communio" Gathered In New Book
February 21, 2013: Fourteen texts with an anthropological theme written by Joseph
Ratzinger between 1972 and 2005―before being elected Pope, are being published in
the volume "Joseph Ratzinger in Communio: Anthropology and Culture (Michigan/Cambridge,
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013), edited by David L. Schindler and Nicholas J.
Healy. The texts―articles and contributions―address, among others, themes such as
humanity between reproduction and creation; Jesus Christ today; the meaning of Sunday;
hope, technological security understood as a problem of social ethics; and God in
John Paul II's "Crossing the Threshold of Hope".
As reported by "L'Osservatore
Romano", the connecting theme in the Pope's writings is that they been published or
re-edited in the American edition of the international Catholic periodical "Communio".
This is the second volume dedicated to Joseph Ratzinger's texts, the first of which,
"Joseph Ratzinger in Communio: The Unity of the Church" was released in 2010, and
was also edited by David L. Schindler. The plan, as Schindler explains in the introductory
note in the second volume, is to republish all of Cardinal Ratzinger's articles that
appeared in the American edition of "Communio", from its first edition in 1974. Despite
the difficulty in clearly establishing the boundaries of their areas, the writings
have been grouped into three major categories: Church, anthropology, and theological
renewal.
"Communio" is an international journal on theology and culture published
quarterly. It was founded in 1972 by various theologians including Hans Urs von Balthasar,
Henri de Lubac, Jean-Luc Marion and Joseph Ratzinger himself.