JOSEPH RATZINGER'S CONCEPTION OF REVELATION AND ITS ECUMENICAL IMPLICATIONS (I)

Joseph Ratzinger's Conception of Revelation and Its Ecumenical Implications (I). The article is an exposition of the Joseph Ratzinger’s concept on Revelation, from the early analysis in his habilitation thesis to his later, more mature reflections. The works under analysis paint an image of an innovative thinker, who challenged both a Platonizing tendency of bracketing history as a meaningful category for the disclosure of Truth and a radical rationalization of history as a global event of total Revelation. Instead, Ratzinger proposed a concept of Revelation as a personal, concrete event of the self-communication of a personal God, who remains close to his creatures through a mysterious presence in the Church, in a process which simultaneously judges and redeems history itself.