God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

by Joseph Ratzinger

Excellent Book

Paperback

Published January 1, 1800

About the author

See also Pope Benedict XVI

Reviews

[Ross Jensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book makes for frustrating reading. It is essentially a collection of homilies, so perhaps I’ve held it to standards that are too stringent to be appropriate. But it’s just so disappointing that Cardinal Ratzinger relies heavily on a style of argumentation that invariably seems disingenuous, even when one believes he’s sincere. For instance, he often equivocates—but in such a way that one supposes he takes himself not to be doing so. Or, to take another example: he often tries to illuminate one claim by appealing to another that is actually more obscure (as in his discussion of receiving the Lord’s “body” or “substance” in terms of receiving his “person”). Unfortunate as it is to report, I came away from these pieces with a strong aftertaste of reckless obscurantism only made starker by the notes of cloying “piousness.”