In between the fiction, I’m currently reading God and the World, the third interview book then-Cardinal Ratzinger did with Peter Seewald. I was inspired to read it by a citation from the book that someone quoted on a blog post somewhere:

“The Church of the first three centuries was a small Church and nevertheless was not a sectarian community. On the contrary, she was not partitioned off; rather, she saw herself as responsible for the poor, for the sick, for everyone. All those who sought a faith in the one God, who sought a promise, found their place in her.
“The synagogue, Judaism in the Roman Empire, had surrounded itself with this circle of God-fearers, who were affiliated with it and thereby achieved a great opening up. The catechumenate of the early Church was very similar. Here people who didn’t feel able to identify with Christianity completely could, as it were, attach themselves to the Church, so as to see whether they would take the step of joining her. This consciousness of not being a closed club, but of always being open to everyone and everything, is an inseparable part of the Church. And it is precisely with the shrinking of Christian congregations we are experiencing that we shall have to consider looking for openness along the lines of such types of affiliation, of being able to associate oneself.
“I have nothing against it, then, if people who all year long never visit a church go there at least on Christmas Night or New Year’s Eve or on special occasions, because this is another way of belonging to the blessing of the sacred, to the light. There have to be various forms of participation and association; the Church has to be inwardly open” (442).

I thought this was fascinating.
All the interview books are interesting, but I’m finding this one especially so because of the theological angle of the questions. It will surprise no one who is actually familiar with Ratzinger’s thought, but it might be worth passing on to those who persist in the stereotype of the judgmentaluptightclosedintolerant Scold of a Pope.  Fully committed to truth, his mind is open, acknowledges mystery and doubt, and deeply aware of the complexity of the human condition and mindful of how the Church is called to be in the midst of that mystery and complexity.
Speaking of Benedict, a reader is getting ready to do a parish study group on Jesus of Nazareth. He’s wondering if anyone has suggestions for resources that might help his group. Doubleday didn’t do a study/group discussion guide for the book, which is unfortunate. Any suggestions?