The relevance of patristic exegesis in contemporary exegesis according to Joseph Ratzinger

Abstract

As a cardinal and later as pope, Ratzinger had a positive attitude towards the heritage of the Church Fathers and the doctrine of the four senses of Scripture. As a theologian, however, Ratzinger wrote practically nothing about the four senses of Scripture, although he retained the basic exegetical convictions of the Church Fathers. The aim of the author of the article was to examine the theological foundations that explain both Ratzinger's recovery of the theory of the four senses and their reinterpretation in a new scientific and theological context. Despite the obvious continuity between the statements of Ratzinger the pastor and the work of Ratzinger the theologian, there is a clear difference. Writing about the relevance of the Church Fathers in Catholic exegesis, the Bavarian theologian draws attention to their function in the structure of the Christian faith, deriving it from the relationship between the word of God and the response to the word, which becomes constitutive for the permanence of God's revelation. The necessity of using the historical-critical method stems, among other things, from the rational responsibility of faith, which the Fathers advocated. However, the historical-critical method must become a theological method, and only then will it be able to reach the literal sense. In Ratzinger’s opinion, the discovery of the multidimensionality of human speech (the theologian speaks of the dimensions of the one word, not of the senses of Scripture) has contributed to the preservation of the patristic synthesis of both testaments and the Christological reading. Spiritual sense is linked to literal sense and to the openness of the word to new interpretations within the framework of canonical exegesis. Instead of ‘allegory,’ Ratzinger writes about Christological-pneumatological interpretation, a term which, in his view, better expresses the nature of the transition caused by the coming of Christ and the Holy Spirit.