The Quiet Prophet
on Benedict XVI: A Protestant Appreciation
One of the great surprises following the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005 was the accession of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the pontificate. I was one of those (perhaps many) orthodox Protestants who had been indebted to the work of John Paul, having cut my teeth on his important encyclicals during the 1980s and 1990s while teaching at the university and doing public-policy research in Washington, D.C. Following his penultimate encyclical, Fides et Ratio (“Faith and Reason,” 1998), which in many ways seemed the culmination of a remarkable career, I assumed that his vision would cease, or at best be muted. I was wrong. As it happened, in the years ahead, until Benedict XVI’s resignation, there remained a wondrous continuity, to Benedict’s great credit.
Benedict is said to be the first academic theologian (narrowly defined) in two centuries to become pope. This should have come as little surprise to those who knew him, for at a very early age Joseph Ratzinger desired to attend seminary. His father, a policeman, had been anti-Nazi in sentiment and was thus not infrequently demoted or transferred in his work. Joseph would mirror his father’s attitudes in this regard; at age 14 (1941), though legally required to join Hitlerjugend (the Hitler Youth), he refused to attend its meetings. Following the war, he studied theology and was ordained a priest. In 1953 he received his doctorate in theology, with a thesis titled “The People and House of God in Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church.”
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
J. Daryl Charles is the Acton Institute Affiliated Scholar in Theology & Ethics. He is the author or editor of twenty books, including Retrieving the Natural Law (2008), Natural Law and Religious Freedom (2018), and, most recently, Just War and Christian Traditions (forthcoming). He is also co-editor of Abraham Kuyper, Common Grace: God's Gifts for a Fallen World, Volume 3 (2020). He is a contributing editor to Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on Catholic from the online archives
24.5—Sept/Oct 2011
A Critical Memoir of Thomas Merton at Gethsemani Abbey by Patrick Henry Reardon
35.4—Jul/Aug 2022
The Death Rattle of a Tradition
Contemporary Catholic Thinking on the Question of War by Andrew Latham
29.3—May/June 2016
A Deathbed Reflection on Catholic Social Teaching & Our Future Prospects by Karl D. Stephan
more from the online archives
33.4—July/August 2020
on Boethius's Consolation in a Time of Plague by Thomas Albert Howard
24.3—May/June 2011
The Making & Endurance of the King James Bible, 1611-2011 by Barton Swaim
21.10—December 2008
Early Christian Teaching on the Incarnation & Redemption by Patrick Henry Reardon
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
