Due out at the end of September is the edited conference volume entitled The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth (eds. Adrian Pabst and Angus Paddison) based on the conference proceedings of the same name held at the University of Nottingham in the summer of 2008. Click here to pre-order from SCM Press.

Details:

The publication of the book Jesus of Nazareth on 16 April 2007 was an unprecedented event: never before had a reigning Pope published personal reflections on Jesus. Benedict XVI’s book engages not just with New Testament scholarship but also with fundamental methodological questions related to historical criticism.

The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth provides essays by some of the leading scholars in Britain, continental Europe and the USA to highlight the insights and limits of the Pope’s reflection on Jesus. Specifically, it engages with the book from critical, cross-disciplinary and different faith perspectives.

Contributors include: John Milbank, Henri-Jérôme Gagey, Francisco Javier Martínez, Fergus Kerr OP, Richard B. Hays, Markus Bockmuehl, Adele Reinhartz, Mona Siddiqui, Peter Casarella, R. W. L. Moberly, Olivier-Thomas Venard OP, Richard Bell, Angus Paddison, Roland Deines, and George Dennis O’Brien.

Endorsements:

“This book is an important response, sympathetic but not uncritical, to Pope Benedict’s appeal to trust the evangelists’ portrayal of Jesus. Whether or not Benedict’s argument is successful, the problem he addresses – the modern divide between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith – is a real one. Contributors to this volume rightly recognize this, and show how the debate can be taken forward.” — Francis Watson, Chair of Biblical Interpretation, University of Durham

“Pope Benedict hoped that his book Jesus of Nazareth would provoke an intelligent debate about what it means to be disciples of Jesus today. This book’s collection of articles, some of exceptional distinction, more than fulfils that hope. Many of them bring fresh light to bear on one of the most important questions which theology faces today, the relationship between modern biblical scholarship and faith in the Risen Lord. Wonderful!” — Timothy Radcliffe OP, Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992-2001

“This is an exciting collection of essays written by an outstanding group of international biblical scholars and systematic theologians. They creatively and resourcefully interact with Pope Benedict XVI’s book, Jesus of Nazareth, allowing the reader to obtain greater insight into and appreciation of Pope Benedict’s thought. Moreover, through their dialogue with Pope Benedict’s work, these authors also make their own individual outstanding scholarly contributions to the study of Christ.” — Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap.,
Executive Director for the Secretariat for Doctrine,
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC

“A rich and articulate inquiry into the Pope’s thought and his reflections on Jesus. This book takes up Benedict XVI’s invitation to overcome the unwarranted dualism between reason and Revelation, between the Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith, and to rediscover the essence of the Christian event – God made man – the inexhaustible spring of an adequate theological and exegetical method. Those essays on the Holy Father’s hermeneutical perspective which are critical also help the deepening of knowledge.” — H.E. Angelo Cardinal Scola, Patriarch of Venice