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St. Paul is one of the most important figures in Christian history. As Saul of Tarsus he vigorously persecuted Christianity, even collaborating in the death of Christianity's first martyr, Stephen. His encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus changed Paul's life, the Christian Church, and world history. More than anyone else in the early Church, Paul saw the universal nature of the Christian message. He became the "Apostle to the Gentiles" and the "Teacher of the Nations". As the human author of half of the New Testament, Paul is a figure who cannot be overlooked by anyone who wants to understand Jesus Christ and Christianity. In this book, Pope Benedict XVI, a profound spiritual leader in his own right and a first-rate theologian and Bible commentator, explores the legacy of Paul. Pope Benedict follows the course of the Apostle's life, including his missionary journeys and his relationship with the other apostles of Jesus such as St. Peter and St. James, and Paul's martyrdom in Rome. Benedict also examines such questions as: Did Paul know Jesus during his earthly life and how much of Jesus' teaching and ministry did he know of? Did Paul distort the teachings of Jesus? What role did Jesus' death and resurrection play in Paul's teaching? What are we to make of Paul's teaching about the end of the world? What does Paul's teaching say about the differences between Catholic and Protestant Christians over salvation and the roles of faith and works in the Christian life? How have modern Catholic and Protestant scholars come together in their understanding of Paul? What does Paul have to teach us today about living a spiritual life? These and other important issues are addressed in this masterful, inspirational, and highly-readable presentation of St. Paul and his writings by one of today's great spiritual teachers, Pope Benedict XVI. "The Apostle Paul, an outstanding and almost inimitable yet stimulating figure, stands before us as an example of total dedication to the Lord and to his Church, as well as of great openness to humanity and its cultures." --Pope Benedict XVI… (more)
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One would expect to find the writings of a brilliant German theologian to be dense, dry, and slow to read–something which could substitute as a sleeping pill if read at bedtime. This book is anything but. It is interesting and simple with a flowing prose accessible to anyone. This short work of only 131 pages has no preface, no forward, no introduction, and no index; its only flaw. It could use these aids, and they will no doubt be added in later editions of this work.
The book is a straight-to-the-point discussion of the writings of the Apostle to the Gentiles, as Saint Paul is often described. Having written about half of the New Testament, and with a life chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul is a figure with a substantial biblical record. Benedict made him the subject of 20 lectures delivered to audiences at the Vatican from July 2, 2008 to February 4, 2009. Each talk, which he calls a Catechesis, is a single chapter in this book.
Rather than read this book though in a sitting or two (which could be done due to its brevity and easy style) I read one chapter a day during my morning prayer time, or in some cases, a second chapter in the evening. Unlike some of Ratzinger’s writings, it is not a theologically complex work. I found it is best read as a devotional with time for digesting the ideas. The book contains great insights into Paul, and is worth lingering upon rather than speed reading.
If one expects a Roman Catholic polemic from this pope, you are likely to be severely disappointed or delighted. Benedict is here teaching “mere Christianity,” as C. S. Lewis would say. Someone of any Christian perspective, be he Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant, will find insight from Benedict’s teaching about what Paul the Apostle says. Benedict is not concerned here to promote distinctively Roman Catholic doctrine. Rather he develops Paul as an evangelist, one who was dramatically changed from a persecutor of the early Church and co-conspirator in the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, into a man driven by his intimacy with the living God to proclaim the Risen One to everyone willing to hear him. Paul was a man with a mission: to “preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Benedict is here a teacher to all Christians, and not just Catholics. For example Benedict in quoting Paul’s first letter to Timothy giving the instructions for church leaders repeats Paul’s qualification that bishops be “the husband of one wife.” One might expect a pope who institutionally enforces the requirement that bishops and clergy be celibate to somehow avoid this qualification, but not Benedict. He is intellectually honest in his discussion of Paul’s writings, even in places where one might expect a lesser writer to pull back so as to avoid pointing out apparent difficulties with Roman dogma. That is the distinctive and surprising thing about this book and many other writings of Benedict. He writes not as pope, but rather as a disciple of Jesus with great insight into Saint Paul. This is nowhere better illustrated than in his own words in the Foreword to another recent book of his, Jesus of Nazareth.
“It goes without saying that this book is in no way an exercise of the magisterium, but solely an expression of my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord,’” writes Benedict. “Everyone is free, then, to contradict me. I would only ask my readers for that initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding.”
Such is the humility which this leader of the Roman Catholic Church carries to his readers. Truly he is a faithful disciple of the one whom he calls “the Risen One.” His profound insight into the mind of Saint Paul makes this a very worthy addition to any library.
Each of the twenty short chapters is the English translation of the pope's catechesis on St Paul
Still - even those chapters that are less profound are still informative - and they are nice bite-sized pieces, so worth a read.