Jesus of Nazareth on two more best-seller lists!

We've announced that Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week is on the New York Times best-seller list. Now, it is also on the Wall Street Journal best-sellers list as well as Publishers Weekly's best-sellers list!

Links:

Wall Street Journal's best sellers.
Publishers Weekly's best sellers.

"Reading the New Testament with Pope Benedict XVI"

Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles reviews Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week in the official archdiocesan newspaper, The Tidings:

I am starting to read Pope Benedict XVI's new book, "Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection" (Ignatius Press, $25).

This is the second volume of our Holy Father's proposed trilogy on the life and message of Jesus. It is a scholarly work that is beautifully written, deeply spiritual, and inspires meditation and prayer.

I recommend it highly, especially to theologians, Bible scholars, religious educators, pastors and seminarians. Along with the pope's 2010 exhortation Verbum Domini ("The Word of the Lord"), the two volumes of "Jesus of Nazareth" are essential for all of us. These works help us appreciate how important the Scriptures are for our work of the new evangelization.

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Instant New York Times Bestseller!

New York Times Bestseller!

Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week will debut March 27 as a New York Times Bestseller!

This sensational news comes as acclaim for the Pope’s second volume on Christ’s life continues to grow.

“It’s a remarkable achievement,” said Protestant scholar Dr. Craig A. Evans of Acadia Divinity College, Acadia University, in Wolfville, N.S., Canada. “It’s the best book I’ve read on Jesus in years. This is a book that I think all Christians should read, be they Protestant or Catholic.”

“This book fulfills Pope Benedict’s ardent desire – that it would ‘be helpful to all readers who seek to encounter Jesus and to believe in him,’” said Capuchin Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy (O.F.M., Cap.), Executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Doctrine.

You can read the full press release (PDF) in the newsroom on the Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week website: click here.

A biblical retreat on the Passion and Resurrection Narratives of the Gospels

By Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B.
     

Fr. Thomas Rosica

Pope Benedict’s first book, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, was a masterpiece and model of authentic Scripture scholarship – the lived experience of' the praying and thinking Church, faith, piety and devotion all working together.  I am very grateful to Ignatius Press for having invited me to read Pope Benedict XVI’s second manuscript: Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week – From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection prior to its publication and presentation to the world by the Vatican Press Office on March 10, 2011.  As a student of Sacred Scripture, scholar and lecturer in New Testament, I spent two days reading the new, dense text of Pope Benedict XVI – Joseph Ratzinger – and came away from the experience as if I had been on a biblical retreat on the Passion and Resurrection Narratives of the Gospels – the very stories at the heart of the Christian faith.

Some of the very striking aspects of this book are when Pope Benedict moves from being exegete and professor to pastor and friend with his very personal additions.  One of those comes in the epilogue of the book on the Ascension of the Lord into heaven.  Benedict writes: “After the multiplication of the loaves, the Lord makes the disciples get into the boat and go before him to Bethsaida on the opposite shore, while he himself dismisses the people. He then goes ‘up on the mountain’ to pray. So the disciples are alone in the boat. There is a headwind, and the lake is turbulent. They are threatened by the power of the waves and the storm. The Lord seems to be far away in prayer on his mountain. But because he is with the Father, he sees them. And because he sees them, he comes to them across the water; he gets into the boat with them and makes it possible for them to continue to their destination.”

Benedict writes: “In our own day, too, the boat of the Church travels against the headwind of history through the turbulent ocean of time. Often it looks as if it is bound to sink. But the Lord is there, and he comes at the right moment. ‘I go away, and I will come to you’ – that is the essence of Christian trust, the reason for our joy.”

It is this personal encounter with the living Lord, traveling in the boat with us, that lies at the heart of Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI – Joseph Ratzinger.   This book should be required reading for every bishop, priest, pastoral minister and serious Catholic who would like to meet Jesus of Nazareth and deepen his/her knowledge of the very person of Jesus and the central mysteries of our faith.  I could think of no better way to prepare for Holy Week and Easter this year than to read this text.

Fr. Rosica is the CEO of Canada’s Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation. Visit them online at www.saltandlighttv.org.

An extraordinary walk through the passages of the Gospel

By Most Rev. Gerald M. Barbarito
Bishop, Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla.

Pope Benedict XVI’s second volume of Jesus of Nazareth truly is a concrete reflection on the word of God as revealed in the Gospels - particularly as it narrates the Passion of Christ through His Resurrection. The Pope gives us an extraordinary walk through the passages of the Gospel which concentrates on this part of the Lord's mission in a manner that is both historically attuned and attuned to our faith.  This is extremely significant for, as the Pope states in the preface of his work, it is during what we call Holy Week, that "we encounter the decisive sayings and events of Jesus' life.”

The manner of encountering the Gospels which the Pope uses in his work is to combine historical – critical exegesis with a hermeneutic of faith.  To seek the historical Jesus, without reference to faith, makes it theologically irrelevant.  For the Pope, exegesis must be a historical and theological discipline.  That is why he uses an exegesis that is very consistent with that of the Fathers of the Church.  Exegetical work, in the words of the Pope "must recognize that a properly developed faith - hermeneutic is appropriate to the text and can be combined with a historical hermeneutic, aware of its limits, so as to form a methodological whole.”  As he observes regarding the combination of these two hermeneutics, “Fundamentally this is a matter of finally putting into practice the methodological principles formulated for exegesis by the second Vatican Council (in Dei Verbum 12), a task that unfortunately has scarcely been attempted thus far."  Simply put, we must read the words and the events of the life of Jesus in the context of faith!  

It is inspiring to know that Pope Benedict XVI, despite his myriad responsibilities and obligations, found the writing of his personal work to be not only important for scholarly reflection but also personally renewing for him.  During whatever limited personal time he had, the Pope was committed to writing and finishing this personal work so that he might hand on in his personal and scholarly life the Person of Jesus Christ.  This is truly an example which speaks not one but many volumes of what the Pope means by fusing a hermeneutic of faith and historical criticism.  When we look to this book of the Holy Father we can also see the book of his life and that speaks of an encounter with Jesus Christ which continually unfolds for him for the service of the Church.

Fr. Joseph Fessio interviewed on Vatican Radio

Listen to the Vatican Radio interview with Ignatius Press founder Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, as he discusses the release of Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week. Click here.

Rome Reports: Benedict XVI receives editors of new book "Jesus of Nazareth"