Synopses & Reviews
In four superb homilies and a concluding essay, Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, provides a clear and inspiring exploration of the Genesis creation narratives.
While the stories of the world?'s creation and the fall of humankind have often been subjected to reductionism of one sort or another literalists treat the Bible as a science textbook whereas rationalists divorce God from creation Ratzinger presents a rich, balanced Catholic understanding of these early biblical writings and attests to their enduring vitality.
Beginning each homily with a text selected from the first three chapters of Genesis, Ratzinger discusses, in turn, God the creator, the meaning of the biblical creation accounts, the creation of human beings, and sin and salvation; in the appendix he unpacks the beneficial consequences of faith in creation.
Expertly translated from German, these reflections set out a reasonable and biblical approach to creation. In the Beginning . . . also serves as an excellent homiletic resource for priests and pastors.
Synopsis
While the stories of the vcreation of the world and of the fall of humankind have often given rise to conflict - fundamentalists twist the Bible into science and history while rationalists approach this issue by "divorcing God from creation" - Cardinal Ratzinger presents the Catholic middle ground between extremist positions in explaining the vitality of these early Old Testament writings.
Table of Contents
pt. 1 God the creator -- The difference between form and content in the creation narrative -- The unity of the Bible as a criterion for its interpretation -- Christology as a criterion -- pt. 2 The meaning of the biblical creation accounts -- The reasonableness of faith in creation -- The enduring significance of the symbolic elements in the text -- Creation and worship -- The sabbath structure -- Creation -- Exploiting the earth? -- pt. 3 The creation of the human being -- The human being - taken from the earth -- Image of God -- Creation and evolution -- pt. 4 Sin and salvation -- On the subject of sin -- Limitations and freedom of the human being -- Original sin -- The response of the New Testament -- Appendix: The suppression of faith in creation in modern thought -- The consequences of creation in present-day thought -- Three forms of concealment -- Faith in creation as a basic -- Decision about human beings.