According to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who is God - Essay Example

Un-astonishingly, these questions have been of sole interest not only for religious people but also for skeptic mythologists, which motivated the work of various researchers who further introduced varied perspectives to the issue. One of such perspectives was put forward by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger in his book “Introduction to Christianity”. From ages, in different religions, in different communities as well as in different cultural clusters, God has been defined from varying perspectives, mostly being based on the beliefs rather than on the mythological facts or implied gestures.

Hence, no single definition for God exists today. Christianity was also no exclusion from this particular aspect based on which, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, in his book ‘Introduction to Christianity’, expressed his opinions about God. According to him, God could not be categorized as something practical or just a theoretical conclusion. Rather, he stated that God is something subjective, who belongs to a private realm and not fundamentally in the common activities of public life. Based on this theory, Ratzinger argued that Christ was not God Himself, but the only son of God who dwells among people as a man bestowed with the responsibility to communicate the words of God within the public life.. In his words, “In the formative period of the New Testament comes a completely unexpected event in which God shows himself from a hitherto unknown side: in Jesus Christ one meets a man who at the same time knows and professes himself to be the son of God…The result is a curious paradox: on one hand, this man calls God his Father…But, on the other hand, he is himself the real proximity of God coming to meet us…” (pp: 163) Hence, the emphasis of Ratzinger’s discussion advocated the concept of God to have fundamentally changed over time with the influence of continuous evaluations in relation to the presumptions and faith.

However, in the realistic phenomenon, it values less for Christians whether to consider God as personal or impersonal as the mystery of God is supposed to be beyond all the concepts and images. Accordingly, he stressed that God is infinitely greater than any concept or image that people holds about God. From a critical perspective, he also stated that God is and will remain invisible for men. He also stated that God is a creator who directs and measures the actions of all human beings judging and setting limits and standards to guide humanity on an estimable pathway.

From a rational viewpoint, he further emphasized that God himself is only a single being who certainly holds a distinct identity to the Christ. Correspondingly, based on religious faiths, he described God to be above all powers1. Considering the summarized perspective presented in Ratzinger (2004), God’s remoteness from the world is behind the humble pragmatism and loss of God’s connection with people is also regarded as a part of that realism. God is present inside all human beings. God in his mask approaches