Out of the Archive – The Divine Project

Ignatius Press

Audio cassette tapes containing lectures by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger that he gave in 1985 at an abbey in Austria are being published for the first time in English by Ignatius Press as a new book, The Divine Project: Reflections on Creation and the Church.

The tapes were lost for almost 30 years, mislaid in the abbey. On these tapes we can hear the voice of the Cardinal who was to become Pope Benedict XVI. He walks his listeners, with small, careful but thoughtful steps, through the thick terrain of the theology of the Creation story. After many decades, these lectures have been dusted off, transcribed and published for readers across the globe for the first time in English in the new book.

At heart it is a study of God the Creator and of man as this Creator's masterpiece.

Professor Matthew Levering writes: ‘Ratzinger guides us through the most difficult domains of modern theology and modern life: how to read the Bible; the Reason of God and the reasonableness of the cosmos; the meaning of original sin; technology, ecology, and creatureliness; the Cross and the Eucharist; and Vatican II, pluralism, the Magisterium, and the nature of the Church’ Fr Joseph Fessio, founder and editor of Ignatius Press, studied theology under Joseph Ratzinger, whom he first met in 1972.

‘These lectures are “vintage Ratzinger” - a theological treasure,’ said Tracey Rowland, St John Paul II Chair of Theology, University of Notre Dame (Australia). ‘Any Catholic could follow them without a formal training in theology. A copy would make a great present for friends, godchildren, students, priests, seminarians and anyone else trying to make sense of the Church and the world’.

For more information see: https://ignatius. com/the-divine-project-dvpp/