Introduction In the book Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI presents the true identity of Jesus as the Christ

of Faith and of History. The introductory remarks on the coversheet divulge what this book entails
In this bold momentous work, Benedict XVI in his first written book as Pope seeks to salvage the person of Jesus from recent popular depictions and restore Jesus true identity as discovered in the Gospels. Through his brilliance as a theologian and his personal conviction as a believer, the Pope shares a rich, compelling, flesh and blood portrait of Jesus and incites us to encounter, face to face, the central figure of the Christian faith.

The Pope shares his personal experience as a believer that in the 1930s there were authors who presented Jesus in their writings as a man who brought God to the people. However, in the 1950s, the distinction between the Historical Jesus and the Christ of the Gospels prevailed. This could be attributed to the Historical Critical Method which, although the Pope acknowledges its indispensability in biblical exegesis, he underscores its limitations because it is purely historical, that is, it presents the Historical Jesus but leaves him in the past without bringing his portrait to the present view of the Christians according to the teaching of the gospels. Therefore, in his effort to reconstruct the Historical Jesus, he underscores the importance of faith in comprehending the communion of Jesus with the Father. He therefore presents the deeds, works and words of Jesus in his public ministry from Baptism to Transfiguration. He begins with the Baptism; the Temptations; The Message on the Kingdom of God, The Sermon on the Mount, The Lords Prayer, The Disciples, The Parables, The Principle Images in Johns Gospel, The two Milestones on Jesus way (The Confession of Peter and the Transfiguration), and lastly The Declaration of His Identity.

The Comparison and Contrast between the content of Jesus of Nazareth and Christ: Fundamentals of Christology Although the focus of both books is Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI and Fr. Kereszty have some specific topics in common. The topics that they both handle include: The Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in River Jordan, The Temptations, The Message on the Kingdom of Heaven at hand which Kereszty calls Kingdom and death of Christ, and The titles of Jesus: Son of Man, Son of God and Jesus is God (I AM). Regarding Baptism, both Benedict and Kereszty point out the fact that Jesus baptism was the beginning of his public ministry (Benedict, 9; Kereszty, 93). They also stipulate two reasons why Jesus had to undergo baptism for the sinners: he wanted to fulfill all righteousness (Mt 3:13) and to portray solidarity with the sinners (Benedict, 17; Kereszty 95, 97). Both authors also coincide on the datum that the baptism of Jesus had a prophetic meaning for his death and resurrection (Benedict, 19; Kereszty, 98). Regarding the temptations, both authors present the biblical fact that Jesus was tempted in the desert for forty days as proof of his divinity. Both authors also agree on the fact that the temptation of Jesus manifested the difficulties he would encounter in his public ministry especially the expectation of him being a political messiah and the demand of him to prove his divinity (Kereszty, 98). Both authors also identify Jesus as relieving the sins of Israel for example Benedict connects the forty days of Jesus temptations in the desert with the forty years when the Israelites were in the desert and Moses was on Mt Sinai for forty days (Benedict, 29). Similarly, Kereszty relates Jesus with Israel in the way that he went to Egypt and retuned
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(Kerezsty, 29). Both authors also agree on the fact that the temptation is in line with the problems that the Church faces today, i.e. the demand for the Church to prove its divinity and being lured to join politics (Kereszty, 103). As regards to the message on the Kingdom of God that is at hand, both authors interpret the Kingdom of God as Jesus himself who has come to save mankind. He has brought peace, healing, repentance and unity. Benedict quotes Origen saying that Jesus is autobasileie. Benedict says Jesus himself is the Kingdom; the Kingdom is not a thing, it is not a geographical dominion like worldly kingdoms. It is a person; it is he (Benedict, 49). In a similar manner Kereszty says that the Kingdom of God is thus the hidden but powerful presence of God in Jesus restoring wholeness and life to all those who accept him in faith (Kereszty, 108). As regards to Jesus being the Son of God, both authors highlight the fact that there is a close communion between Jesus and the Father. They both concur that the root of Jesus sonship is the Old Testament particularly Ex 4:22 where Yahweh sends Moses to Pharaoh to ask him to relieve Israel, Gods first born. Secondly, 2Sm 7:12-14 where God promised David that his son will be the Son of Yahweh and He will be a Father to him and lastly, l Ps 2:7 used for the enthronement of the Davidic King described as being begotten by God (Benedict, 336; Kereszty, 198). Both authors also concur on the fact that the sonship of Jesus is proven on the Cross when he cries Abba- Father (Benedict, 336-44; Kereszty, 178).

Differences

Insofar as Benedict and Kereszty treat similar topics, their methodologies and some theological interpretations differ. For example, although both authors agree that Jesus baptism was the beginning of his public ministry and that he underwent baptism for the sinners to identify with them and to fulfill righteousness and that his baptism prefigured his death and resurrection, they interpret the voice in different ways. Benedict interprets the voice as an anticipation of the resurrection (Benedict, 18). While Kereszty interprets this voice as a revelation to Jesus of which kind of Messiah he is to be i.e. very different from the expected but a hidden Messiah (Kereszty, 97). Regarding the temptations, Benedict presents the actual accounts of the three types of temptations. On the contrary, Kereszty does not account for them probably because he is interested in an apologetic presentation of this information to people who have a clue of Jesus and not amateurs. While viewing their interpretations, Benedict understands the second temptation in a form of a vision which represents something real, and that possess a particular threat to the man Jesus and his mission (Benedict, 34). While Kereszty interprets the second temptation in the way that the language used is mythological: a very high mountain from which Jesus is able to see all the kingdoms of the earth in their glory, the instantaneous and multiple transfers of Jesus from one place to another. The mythological language suggests that these events transcend ordinary experience (Kereszty, 99). Inasmuch as, I have contrasted where the two authors treat similar topics, there are topics that they do not share. Benedict treats the following topics which Kereszty lacks: The Sermon on the Mount, the Lords Prayer, the Disciples, the Parables of Good Samaritan, Prodigal Son and The Principal Images of Johns Gospel. On the contrary, Kereszty has the following topics which Benedict lacks: Death and Resurrection, The private life of Jesus (i.e. his conception,
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brothers and sisters, the Holy Family), The understanding of the Mystery of Christ in the Apostolic Church, Patristic Christology, Soteriology of the Fathers, the Christology of the Fathers, Christological heresies and councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, second and third councils of Constantinople, Medieval Christology, Christology of the Reformation, Protestant Christologies in the 12th century, sin as a threefold alienation, mystery or the Incarnation, the Humanity of the son, the Redemption as Assumption of Humankind into Trinitarian communion, Universal signifance of Christ in the Context of Other Religions, Christ and Possible Other Universes, Extraterrestrial Intelligent Beings and lastly the relationship between Anthropology and Christology. Strengths and weakness of Jesus of Nazareth One of the strengths I find with Benedict in this momentous work is his incredible biblical exegesis. There is no doubt that Pope Benedict is a biblical exegete. He does an excellent job of introducing every mystery of Jesus with an Old Testament text. His typological approach of the bible brings to reality the reasons for writing this book, that is to say, bringing Jesus face to face with the readers. By his typology he practically reconstructs the identity of Jesus as prophesied in the Old Testament, how he fulfilled those prophecies and how he remains the same Jesus in the Gospels. For example Benedict begins the Sermon on the Mount by citing prophet Isaiah. He says
Mathew immediately follows the story of Jesus temptation with a short account of the beginning of his ministry. In this context, he explicitly presents Galilee as Galilee of the Gentiles- as the place where the prophets (Is 8:29; 9:1) had foretold that the great light (Mt 4:15f.) would dawn. In this way Mathew responds to the surprise that the Savior does not come from Jerusalem and Judea, but from a district that was actually half pagan (Benedict, 65).

In connection to the above, the Pope has an interesting methodology of attracting the attention of the readers by the use of biblical images. He delves into the history of the bible by
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presenting to the readers the places of Jesus ministry. What impressed me was the fact that as he began introducing the book by naming Jesus as the new Moses, he brings him in once again at the Sermon of the Mount by relating Jesus Mountain of Beatitudes to Mount Sinai. For just as Moses spoke to God as a friend on Sinai in the same way Jesus now speaks to God face to face. He gives an amazing description of the beauty of the Mount of beatitudes
And yet how different this Mountain is from that imposing rocky mass in the desert! Tradition has identified a hill north of Lake Genesareth as the Mount of the Beatitudes. Anyone who has been there and gazed with the eyes of his soul on the wide prospect of the waters of the lake, the sky and the sun, the trees and the meadows, the flowers and the sound of birdsong can never forget the wonderful atmosphere of peace and the beauty of creation encountered there- in a land unfortunately so lacking in peace (Benedict, 66-67).

Besides the above, I am impressed with the Popes hermeneutics of the mystery of Christ in the context of contemporary problems that the Christians and the Church are facing. The Church being the body of Christ (Eph 1:23), her believers and ministers in the present time experience persecution of different kinds for the sake of their faith. The Pope calls those who are persecuted to the sake of their faith the righteous,
The people who are persecuted for righteousness sake are those who live by Gods righteousness- by faith. Because man constantly strives for emancipation from Gods will in to follow himself alone, faith will always appear as a contradiction to the world- to the ruling powers at any given time. For this reason, there will be persecution for the sake of righteousness in every period of history. This word of comfort is addressed to the persecuted Church of times. In her powerlessness and in her sufferings, she knows that she stands in the place where Gods Kingdom is coming (Benedict, 89).

order all

Weaknesses Although the Pope does a great job in his book, he cannot go without weakness upon which he is critiqued. First of all, Pope Benedict acknowledges the fact that at first he limited
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himself on the Synoptic Gospels of Mathew, Mark and Luke. Here I feel that he would have a balance from the very beginning. Secondly, when he comes to the principle images of Johns Gospel, he begins by presenting the historical credibility of the gospel because Jesus activity shifts from Galilee to Jerusalem and because this shift caused modern critical scholarship to deny the historicity of the text- with the exception of the passion narrative and a few details- and to regard it as a later theological reconstruction (Benedict, 129). It would have been important for the Pope to defend the historicity of all the gospels not only Johns gospel because some people still question the authorship of Mark, Luke and debating on either Mathew or Mark was written first. Connected to the above, Pope Benedict is not straight forward in his writing. From the very beginning of his book, he challenges the readers to view Jesus face-to-face as he underscores the limitation of the Historical Critical Method. However, in most in of the topics he beats around the bush instead of going straight to the point. For example, he defends the historicity of Johns gospels instead of going straight to the principle images of the gospel. He also sometimes gets off topic in some of the examples he gives. For instance as he speaks about the beatitudes, he brought in the biography of St Francis of Assisi (Benedict, 78). This makes it difficult to follow where he begins and where he ends. I also think that the Pope has limited consistency in his presentation particularly in presenting all the biblical methodologies to the readers. He explains the Historical Method and later he mentions Rudolf Bultmann ( Benedict, 220) who spearheaded Form Criticism but he does not explain what Form Criticism is.

The structure of the book also deserves some criticism. Pope Benedict entitles his book Jesus of Nazareth and says that this first part has taken a long gestation. And that the second part will include the infant narrative. However, I feel that reconstructing the history of Jesus would begin with the infant narrative because the baptism and other public ministries of Jesus may not appropriately introduce the history of Jesus. He asserts that the man Jesus brought God to the person (Benedict, 44) which is true but it could have been more meaningful if he had begun with the infant narrative. Otherwise it may not make a big difference to begin with this important aspect of Jesus life than it coming later moreover, when this first part has taken a long gestation. In connection to the above, the reconstruction of the historical Jesus and Christ of Faith may not be possible with the absence of the doctrinal teachings of the Church. The Pope makes this big effort to present the true identity of Jesus but he rarely hints on the Christological heresies like Arianism, Nestorianism and the Monophysites and the councils that condemned them like the Nicaea, Second and Third Constantinople, Antioch and Chalcedon to mention a few. Evaluation of the book Considering the strengths and weaknesses mentioned above, the question whether Benedict accomplished his goal of writing this book is fundamental. However, with a clear conscience, I firmly agree that Pope Benedict accomplishes the goal of presenting the figure and the message of Jesus in his public ministry, and so to help foster the growth of a living relationship with him for his reader. He presents Jesus as being the Son of God, who is of the same substance with the Father. He is the one who lived and whom the Gospel writers present.
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Therefore, the Gospels did not need to clothe him in flesh because he had already taken flesh (Benedict, xiv). And that the communion with the Father is the true center of his personality; without it, we cannot understand him at all, and it is from this center that he makes himself present to us still today.
Now, it is true that this leads to the great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: What did Jesus actually bring, if not peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: He brought God. He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually, first to Abraham, then to Moses and the prophets, and then in among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, Isaac Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the nations of the earth (Benedict, 44).

and

After presenting who Jesus is, he enumerated his public ministry from the Baptism to the Transfiguration. And lastly he fosters the growth of living relationship with Jesus by dialoguing with readers. He uses the methodology of question and answer which challenges the readers to delve into the mysteries of Jesus and therefore grow in faith. Search of Benedicts thought, significant passage and my thought There is no doubt, as constantly hinted that Pope Benedict reconstructs the history of Jesus and challenges readers to face Jesus face- to- face. In reading this book, I pick a strong point of practicality. The Pope does not only appeal for faith in comprehending the communion of Jesus with the Father but also appeals for the universal responsibility for evangelization. The passage connected to this comes from his articulation of the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the entire world, the entire present and future, and yet it demands discipleship and can be understood and lived out only by following Jesus and accompanying him on his journey ( Benedict, 69). This passage is significant to me in several ways: First of all, in the context of the book, Christ is present among us and he will continue living in the Church his body. Secondly, the reality of the saving works of Jesus needs to be spread to everyone and
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every nation according to what the beatitudes teach. Thirdly, the spread of the good news about Christ calls upon the entire Christian community who form the disciples of Jesus. Once again Benedict says,
He brought the God of Israel to the nations, so that all nations now pray to him and recognize Israels Scriptures as the word of the living God. He has brought the gift of universality, which was the one great definitive promise to Israel and the world. This universality, this faith in the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--- extended now in Jesus new family to all nations over the bonds according to the flesh-is the fruit of Jesus work. It is what proves him to be the Messiah (Benedict, 116).

Important idea learned The important idea I have learned from this book is of Jesus being the new Torah. Following my study of moral theology where John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor uses the passage on the rich man in Mt 19:16-30 to teach about the need to seek for perfection in addition to observing the commandments, I had not grasped what perfection entails. However, the Pope unveils it in this book as following Jesus who is the new Torah. In his reflection on the beatitudes and the dispute on the Sabbath, the Pope makes it clear how Christ in the new Torah. Citing Mt 11:28-30, Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light and Mt 12:8, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for Sabbath, The Pope makes it clear that Jesus neither abrogates the commandments nor is he liberal, but he has taken over the burden of the law upon himself because he is the new Torah that deserved to be followed.
The issue that is really at the heart of the debate is thus finally laid bare. Jesus understands himself as the Torah as the word of God in person. The tremendous prologue of Johns gospelin the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1) says nothing different from what the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount and the Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels says. The Jesus of the fourth Gospel and the Jesus of the Synoptic is one and the same: the true historical Jesus (Benedict, 110). 10

An area that created New Question and the questions On page 123, Pope Benedict gives the explanation and the distinction between apodictic law and casuistic law which is derived from Ex 20:22-23:19. He say that apodictic law is the type of law that comes directly from God and one that therefore holds all times and places, and is not subject to revision. While the casuistic law is the type of Old Testament law that is not directly from God and which is historically conditioned and open to revision; it is formulated according to the need to the time and based upon Divine Law. The questions are: how can casuistic law be a type of Old Testament and at the same time not from God, who is the author of casuistic law, and why does the casuistic law not bear universal application? Interesting Quote and its Explanation A priest is chosen by Christ. His role is in persona Christi as he performs the threefold function of a priest including: Kingship, Priesthood and Prophecy. Therefore the priest- the apostle of Christ on whom the Christian community is founded has to work in reference to Christ- the source of his priesthood. Therefore it is only through the bond with Christ that the priest will be able to preach and lead the flock according to what he preaches. Thus Benedict says, The apostle are the first and foremost evangelists like Jesus, they preach the kingdom of God and thereby gather people into Gods new family. But the preaching of Gods Kingdom is never just words, never just instruction. It is an event, just as Jesus himself is an event, Gods Word in person. By announcing him, the Apostles lead their listeners to encounter him (Benedict, 173). The priest of this time has also to bear in mind that his preaching and ministerial work is under challenges caused by the evils of power, rationalism, technology and absolute autonomy.
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Thus in his ministry, he should be able to challenge believers to seek understanding through faith because faith and reason are inseparable. The Pope says,
The world is now seen as soothing rational: It emerges from eternal reason, and this creative reason is the only true power over the world and in the world. Faith in the one God is the thing that truly liberates the world and makes it rational. When faith is absent, the world only appears to be more rational. In reality the indeterminable powers of the chance now claim their due; chaos theory takes its place alongside insight into the rational structure of the universe, confronting man with obscurities that he cannot resolve and that set limits to the worlds rationality (Benedict, 174).

Conclusion. In this book review, I have given an introduction that broadly summarizes the book followed by comparison and contract in content and methodology of Jesus of Nazareth with Christ: Fundamentals of Christology. I also have described the strengths and weaknesses of Jesus of Nazareth, sought for Benedicts thought and cited a significant passage, presented the important idea I have learned, cited an area that raises a question in me and lastly I have quoted a portion of the book and given an explanation of why it is significant.

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