The Personalism of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

Abstract

Joseph Ratzinger, in his autobiography entitled My Life, writes about his encounter with personalism, later found explained by Martin Buber, as: “A spiritual experience that left an essential mark, even if I spontaneously associated such personalism with the thought of St. Augustin, who in his Confessions had struck me with the power of all his human passion and depth.” From that moment on, all his theology emanates with personalism. He is convinced that “Christian faith does not relate to an idea but to a Person” (Intruduction to Christianity). The personalistic thinking of Joseph Ratzinger becomes evident when he describes the essence of the Sacrament of Baptism as well as the contents of the profession of faith in One and – at the same time – Three-personed God. “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person” (Deus Caritas est, 1). Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI underlines the significance of person in all his theology by focusing on the concept of person in Trinitology and Christology, in which he develops a personalism in the purest form.