What It Means to Be a Christian

by Pope Benedict XVI

Publisher:

Ignatius

, 2006

Overview

Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, writes eloquently and persuasively about how one can live as a serious Christian in today’s secular world. He talks in depth about the true meaning of faith, hope, and love—the love of God and the love of neighbor. He also discusses at length the crucial importance of a lived faith, for the believer himself as well as for witnessing and striving to bring faith in line with the present age, which has veered off into rampant secularism and materialism. He passionately encourages the reader to practice a deep, abiding Christian faith that seeks to be at the service of humanity.

What It Means to Be a Christian includes essays derived from sermons preached to college students toward the end of Vatican II. They are remarkable, among other reasons, for their insights into the ongoing Christian struggle to understand and realize in action “what it means to be a Christian.”

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Key Features

• Preface by the author
• Three sermons preached in the cathedral at Muenster

Contents

Top Highlights

“What really torments us today, what bothers us much more is the inefficacy of Christianity: after two thousand years of Christian history, we can see nothing that might be a new reality in the world; rather, we find it sunk in the same old horrors, the same despair, and the same hopes as ever.” (Pages 25–26)

“We are assuming that spiritual ‘unemployment’—a life without faith or prayer—is more pleasant than spiritual service. Yet how do we know that?” (Page 48)

“means being ready to engage in a particular service that God requires from us in history” (Page 54)

“inborn illusion by virtue of which each of us takes his own self to be the center of things” (Page 70)

“the peace that will be characteristic of redeemed mankind” (Page 23)

Product Details

• Title: What It Means to Be a Christian
• Author: Joseph Ratzinger
• Translator: Henry Taylor
• Publisher: Ignatius
• Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 86

About Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI was the 265th pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on 24 April 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. A native of Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship.