This short book is a compendium of sermons the Pope gave during a Lenten season. It is necessary reading for people who are temped to take the Bible literally. It also gives others alternative understanding of Genesis and that there is a deeper meaning to the book. The Pope does an excellent illumination of the creation story from Genesis and the challenge which modern science seems to present to literal accuracy of these passages in the Bible. He presents the lessons we can learn from the creation story and accepts the science which seems to contradict the Bible.



I found it so engaging I passed it along to our local Pastor to read during this Lenten season.

This short book is a compendium of sermons the Pope gave during a Lenten season. It is necessary reading for people who are temped to take the Bible literally. It also gives others alternative understanding of Genesis and that there is a deeper meaning to the book. The Pope does an excellent illumination of the creation story from Genesis and the challenge which modern science seems to present to literal accuracy of these passages in the Bible. He presents the lessons we can learn from the creation story and accepts the science which seems to contradict the Bible.

I found it so engaging I passed it along to our local Pastor to read during this Lenten season.

In the Beginning was a delight to read. One should not feel intimidated by the author. I must say I found the new pope's style very poetic and easy to follow in contrast to the writings of John Paul II whose style was more academic. I appreciated the distinction he made regarding the necessity of understanding the "literal" meaning of Sacred Scripture in the context of its literary form. For instance, if I read an Aesop Fable as though it were history, I would be missing the true literal meaning of the text - literal in the sense of literature or the means of communication based on writing. This must be taken into consideration, and everyone in fact does - even fundamentalist/literalists, although they won't admit it. For instance they would not claim Jesus actually taught we should eat his Body and drink his Blood. They would claim that our Lord's words in John 6 were metaphorical. The tragedy occurs when one interprets Sacred Scripture apart from the Church of Christ, the Church that is his Body and possesses his mind as St. Paul so clearly teaches. Then scriptural interpretation becomes absolutely subjective. The Holy Father also focuses on the true Christian attitude toward Creation, a doctrine that has been totally lost to the public mindset. Altogether, the book clears up many misconceptions regarding Catholic doctrine.

In the Beginning was a delight to read. One should not feel intimidated by the author. I must say I found the new pope's style very poetic and easy to follow in contrast to the writings of John Paul II whose style was more academic. I appreciated the distinction he made regarding the necessity of understanding the "literal" meaning of Sacred Scripture in the context of its literary form. For instance, if I read an Aesop Fable as though it were history, I would be missing the true literal meaning of the text - literal in the sense of literature or the means of communication based on writing. This must be taken into consideration, and everyone in fact does - even fundamentalist/literalists, although they won't admit it. For instance they would not claim Jesus actually taught we should eat his Body and drink his Blood. They would claim that our Lord's words in John 6 were metaphorical. The tragedy occurs when one interprets Sacred Scripture apart from the Church of Christ, the Church that is his Body and possesses his mind as St. Paul so clearly teaches. Then scriptural interpretation becomes absolutely subjective. The Holy Father also focuses on the true Christian attitude toward Creation, a doctrine that has been totally lost to the public mindset. Altogether, the book clears up many misconceptions regarding Catholic doctrine.

I found this book, which contains homilies by then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), an excellent teaching on the Roman Catholic Church's interpretation of the first two chapters of Genesis. Cardinal Ratzinger writes exceptionally clearly on complex issues and his arguments are truly a delight to follow. This book is an excellent antidote to Catholics who think the Church takes Genesis 1-2 literally as do Evangelical Christians. Cardinal Ratzinger explains well the concepts of salvation history and that science and Christian belief are truly not in conflict. I found this very orthodox teaching a wonderful reminder. This book is an excellent source for anyone who wants to understand the Catholic Church's teaching on the Genesis creation stories and the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

No time could be better than now for this text to be read by Americans. Catholics stand between adamant fundamentalists and extreme atheistic evolutionists. This text is something I have desired to see for a long time. It is often difficult to show atheists that Catholics are not opposed to evolution and still show fundamentalists that we are not atheistic. I believe that reading this text and also sharing it can indeed help with dialog along these lines. Ratzinger presents insights about the true importance of belief in being created, a message that can help change the view of the world for many. Additionally, he exquisitely discusses the nature of sin in mankind, giving a brief, yet profound depth to a subject which is so often avoided in modernity.

I recommend this to all who would like to see and understand a truly Catholic stance on the nature of belief in creation. In particular, I suggest it to parties that believe one of the two extremes mentioned above. Nonetheless, there are insights to be gained by all in reading this marvelous text.

In this remarkable collection of homilies given during Lent 1981, while he was still Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger explores creation as a central piece of Christian doctrine. His reading of the creation story sees belief in creation as reasonable, over against a scientism that sees God as irrelevant or simply a prime mover of the evolutionary process, and then explores deeply the questions of anthropology that inevitably arise from the story of the fall.

Reading Ratzinger as an American is always strange, because his most salient criticisms of European Marxists hit hardest, in the American landscape, against religious conservatives. Though 'In the Beginning...' is doubtless a creationist theology, it bears little resemblance to the Intelligent Design movement and its related entities. Ratzinger's account provides real food for thought for both sides of the contemporary debate.

His insights go much further than the question of creation's compatibility with the present scientific understanding of the origins of the universe, however. In his final homily, "Sin and Salvation," and especially in the Appendix, which discusses the consequences of faith in creation, he plumbs the depths of our human obsession with our own actions and charts a course toward the redemptive action of God, and the avoidance of sin as denial of humanity's fundamental condition of relationality, both to God and to our neighbors. This Appendix is frustratingly thin-a dissertation or two could be written working out a more comprehensive understanding of the concepts at hand-but what is here is certainly thought-provoking.

Written as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, "In The Beginning..." presents Pope Benedict XVI's introduction to, as the title says, the Creation and the Fall. Originally delivered in Munich as four homilies for Lent, the text both explains and inspires. The ideas expressed are noble and the language and phrasing, even translated from German, are often beautiful. Those Benedict supporters who seem to think the Pope is a reactionary conservative might be surprised by the ideas in this book. Though "In The Beginning..." is a quick and easy read, it might be best approached a little at a time so as to reflect and meditate on the text.