God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Ignatius Press, 2002

Comments by Dr. Samuel Gregg:

As Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has demonstrated again and again that he is one of the world’s leading theologians. In this extended interview with the renowned German journalist, Peter Seewald, we are given an insight into Ratzinger’s thought on a range of topics fundamental to Christian belief. This includes profound meditation on the theological virtues (faith, hope, and love), Creation, Revelation, the Personhood of Christ, the Cross, the Sacraments, and the Church itself. This book is especially interesting insofar as the interviewer has only recently returned to the Catholic Faith, and is thus far from obsequious in his questions. The ensuing discussion between the once-secularist journalist and a Prince of the Church thus deeply penetrates into some of the very essences of Christian belief, and confirms Ratzinger’s reputation as a Christian critically engaged with modernity and not afraid to state where it sheds both light and darkness upon the truth revealed to man by faith and reason.