Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI
Religion & Liberty Online

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI

God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Ignatius Press, 2002

Comments by Dr. Samuel Gregg:
As Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has demonstrated again and again that he is one of the world’s leading theologians. In this extended interview with the renowned German journalist, Peter Seewald, we are given an insight into Ratzinger’s thought on a range of topics fundamental to Christian belief. This includes profound meditation on the theological virtues (faith, hope, and love), Creation, Revelation, the Personhood of Christ, the Cross, the Sacraments, and the Church itself. This book is especially interesting insofar as the interviewer has only recently returned to the Catholic Faith, and is thus far from obsequious in his questions. The ensuing discussion between the once-secularist journalist and a Prince of the Church thus deeply penetrates into some of the very essences of Christian belief, and confirms Ratzinger’s reputation as a Christian critically engaged with modernity and not afraid to state where it sheds both light and darkness upon the truth revealed to man by faith and reason.

Jordan J. Ballor

Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; Ph.D., Calvin Theological Seminary) is director of research at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, an initiative of the First Liberty Institute. He has previously held research positions at the Acton Institute and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and has authored multiple books, including a forthcoming introduction to the public theology of Abraham Kuyper. Working with Lexham Press, he served as a general editor for the 12 volume Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology series, and his research can be found in publications including Journal of Markets & Morality, Journal of Religion, Scottish Journal of Theology, Reformation & Renaissance Review, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Faith & Economics, and Calvin Theological Journal. He is also associate director of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research at Calvin Theological Seminary and the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity & Politics at Calvin University.