Through the Lens of the Pure in Heart: Ratzinger’s Theological approach and the interpretation of Revelation

Abstract

Summary: I. The Vision of Faith, Wisdom and Purity of Heart. II. Interpretation through the form of Mary-Church. III. The Relationship between History and Theology in Ratzinger’s thought. 1. The influence of Bonaventure: History, Reception and subjectivity. 2. Theology and History in Dei Verbum: ‘Word’ and
‘Answer’. 3. A Hermeneutics of Continuity, the Church’s Memory and Living Tradition. 4. History, Revelation and Multiplicity. IV. Conclusion.

For Ratzinger, the truth of Revelation (as person) cannot be confined to empirical, positivistic statements. His interpretation of Revelation centres on a deeply mystical view of faith, which, through the Church, gives access to a real experiential knowledge of God in Christ. His view of history, tradition and categories of wisdom and purity of heart give eyes to see the work of the Spirit in symphonicmultiplicity and facilitate new insights through dialogue with the logos in new contexts. New insights into Revelation are given without an accommodation to relativism, the ideological grasping of modernity or the fashionable fluidity of a postmodern culture.