Ontological and Historical Dimensions of Salvation According to Joseph Ratzinger - by Isabel C Troconis (Hardcover)

About the Book

Examines Joseph Ratzinger's view of the path that has led to the separation of ontology and history afflicting contemporary theology and proposes some key insights, drawn from his relational understanding of human salvation.

Book Synopsis

For Joseph Ratzinger, the separation between ontology and history constitutes the crucial problem that underlies all the difficulties of contemporary dogmatic theology since it affected the original unity of two essential dimensions of Christian revelation.This study delves into Joseph Ratzinger's approach to the problem, his account of the path that led to this separation, and into some key insights, drawn from his understanding of human salvation that could contribute to overcoming this dichotomy that afflicts contemporary theology.

Through the study of Joseph Ratzinger's writings, Troconis highlights the relational and existential character of the theology of one of the best-known and most influential Catholic thinkers of our time.

Review Quotes

Although written in English, one of the strengths of this study is that Troconis brings to it a facility in multiple languages, enabling her to draw upon research into Ratzinger's theology in German, Spanish, Italian, and French. Furthermore, her ability to read Ratzinger's work in its original language means that she has accessed texts either difficult to find or unavailable in English, and regularly picks up nuances in meaning that are lost in translations into English. In other words, she has been able to study the whole of Ratzinger's oeuvre that is relevant to the question of the relation between history and ontology in his soteriology, and study it more immediately than people who do not understand German. Not only is her study of this theme detailed and coherent; it makes a valuable contribution to understanding a theme that lies at the heart of the whole of Ratzinger's theologizing.
Peter J. McGregor, Catholic Institute of Sydney, Australia

For two centuries, Catholic theology has been haunted by the contrast between metaphysics, with its focus on the unchanging foundational structures of reality, and theology, with its concern for the historical sweep of salvation history from creation to redemption. How does one integrate the permanent and changing within an understanding of how the God who transcends history enters history for our salvation? This question is a thread running through the theology of Joseph Ratzinger and Isabel Troconis carefully expounds the way Ratzinger addresses the problem through the lens of the saving person and work of Christ. She skillfully brings together material from the entire corpus of Ratzinger's writings to show how he offers a model for bringing Athens and Jerusalem together.
Michael Root, Catholic University of America, USA

In this superb volume, Troconis serves as a true guide to Ratzinger's highly nuanced, broadly sourced and intellectually complex writings. Her book is at once an accessible yet trenchant. It provides precise analyses of Ratzinger's works and spells out numerous implications of the themes of ontology, time, salvation and history with acumen. The book attends to key Christian doctrinal loci that have preoccupied Ratzinger, in dialogue with other modern theologians. An illuminating and persuasive study!
Paul Allen, Corpus Christi College, Canada

About the Author

Isabel C. Troconis is an Adjunct Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Italy.