{"id":1342,"date":"2020-12-23T02:02:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T02:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2020-12-23T02:03:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T02:03:09","slug":"introduction-to-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/23\/introduction-to-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Introduction to Christianity<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Unlike too many books that attempt to explicate Christianity, Joseph Ratzinger’s allows for both the spiritual and the intellectual aspects of humankind by framing faith through mystery.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Retroview by Joshua Tseng-Tham
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There has been no shortage of books in recent years designed to introduce their audiences to the Christian faith. Most of these titles fall under one of two categories: The first is characterized by a secular, academic approach to Christian doctrine, bombarding the reader with uncharitable formulations of Christianity that do not do justice to Christianity\u2019s central truth claims; the second consists of Christian apologetics works that introduce the Christian faith as a series of propositions to be defended.<\/p>

There is no doubt that both categories offer much to their intended audiences. After all, humans are rational creatures and value logical argumentation. Both categories of book address the rational aspect of human nature. But humans are also spiritual creatures, responding to impulses that point toward some transcendent reality. Religion claims to offer a picture of this transcendent reality, and an overwhelming majority of people in the world subscribe to a religion. Given this fact, neither category of \u201cintroduction\u201d is complete, because they fail to appeal to the spiritual aspect of human nature. Furthermore, these overly rationalized works speak less clearly to those who are not philosophers or theologians. Thus, a proper introduction to Christianity\u2014one that appeals to the entire human psyche\u2014ought to both incorporate intellectual rigor and spiritual depth.<\/p>

In light of the dearth of books that accomplish both these things, Joseph Ratzinger\u2019s Introduction to Christianity <\/em>is a pleasant surprise. Ratzinger\u2019s seminal work constructs a compelling and knowledgeable picture of the Christian faith without devolving into a series of logical syllogisms. True, he introduces Christianity within the framework of the Apostles\u2019 Creed, which can be thought of as a series of propositions\u2014but Ratzinger uses the Creed as just a starting point to methodically develop important spiritual insights. Such a project means that Introduction to Christianity <\/em>is not an easy read, but serious readers of all theological persuasions can appreciate how this book interweaves the spiritual with the intellectual.<\/p>

Ratzinger manages this balance by framing Christianity in terms of mystery<\/em>, which is itself a natural development of his examination of mankind\u2019s epistemic dilemma. From the outset, he characterizes the \u201cproblem of man\u201d as the inability to escape doubt. Everyone experiences doubt, Ratzinger claims, but we tend to associate doubt with the professing believer. The Christian, according to this trope, is confronted with the frequent possibility that his or her worldview may be wrong. Growing up in the multicultural West increases the likelihood that the Christian will encounter opposing viewpoints, which are often held with an equal fervency. Ratzinger describes this phenomenon as an ever-present uncertainty that \u201ccast[s] a piercing light on the fragility of the whole that usually seems so self-evident.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The non-believer is constrained by his attempts to explain the totality of reality without appealing to supernatural explanations.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What many do not immediately recognize is the extent to which this phenomenon affects the non-believer, as well. The non-believer, according to Ratzinger, \u201cis troubled by doubts about his unbelief, about the real totality of the world he has made up his mind to explain as a self-contained whole.\u201d In other words, the non-believer is constrained by his attempts to explain the totality of reality without appealing to supernatural explanations. But this self-imposed epistemic constraint is ultimately dissatisfying; he may become suspicious of it. The senses, after all, only tell us so much about the world, and by definition cannot tell us anything that is not knowable through them. This leads to an ontology inseparable from the human experience.\u00a0 All that is, the unbeliever must affirm, is what human beings can experience (through his senses, or through sense augmented by scientific instruments) in the ordinary, repeatable course of nature.\u00a0 But why must this be the case? And what should the unbeliever do with his yearning for a reality greater than himself?<\/p>

Taken together, Ratzinger\u2019s observations suggest that everyone experiences doubt, regardless of their religious faith or lack thereof. Even those who claim to be indifferent to such questions are still responding <\/em>to doubts that they invariably encounter. This dilemma has no escape\u2014indeed, doubt is one of the essential features of being human. The correct posture is to resist the temptation to solve the dilemma and instead to reconsider what\u00a0 belief is, and how it works. Belief is not simply a psychological attitude that corresponds to certainty, nor is it a mere knowledge of a certain fact. It is, as Ratzinger eloquently describes, an \u201centrusting\u201d of the self towards that which transcends the self. This applies to any belief\u2014whether it be religious, philosophical, or scientific\u2014since our intrinsic limitations prevent us from achieving total certainty. But this fact need not be a troubling one. Airline passengers routinely entrust themselves to pilots of whose skill level they can have no certain knowledge. Parents send children to schools without, for the most part, feeling the need to conduct criminal records checks on each and every teacher. Doubt pervades all belief, but this means that we are able to be charitable to those with differing views, since those who recognize the fragility of their worldview can understand why others choose a different path.<\/p>

If belief is understood in this way, then mystery is actually an opportunity, not an intellectual cop-out, since it describes a reality that is not fully understood but that at the same time offers the possibility of responding to or participating in it. Christianity integrates this framework by subscribing to the notion that faith is ultimately a type of belief, one that is a response to a much greater reality\u2014God\u2014who cannot be seen and yet is all the more real. The mystery of God, which at first glance appears like an impassable chasm between God and man, is actually the opportunity for conversion, wherein the person responds to an echo of transcendence by leaping into it. Only by making a leap into <\/em>this reality does the believer begin to understand it, and the space between man and God morphs from a chasm to a bridge. Belief, therefore, does beget knowledge in some sense. But this knowledge does not come from external observation; rather, it is achieved when one participates in God’s divine nature.<\/p>

This notion of conversion is a constant feature in the Christian life, and it is present in many areas of Christian doctrine. Consider, for instance, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Christianity claims that God is one\u2014Ratzinger calls him Logos<\/em>, the ground of all truth and intelligibly, which acts in accordance with love. But at the same time, Christianity claims that God is three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is profoundly perplexing and appears to be a contradiction, but Ratzinger takes pains to explain that the paradox of the Trinity is not necessarily <\/em>contrary to reason. The key is to understand that Christian personhood is not an identity conceived qua <\/em>substance (i.e., The Trinity is not a description of three separate substances coexisting in a \u201csuper-substance\u201d), but rather is fundamentally relational. Consequently, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit enact \u00a0relational concepts which, when viewed together, show us everything that love is. To give an admittedly inadequate summary, one can view the Father as infinitely giving love, the Son infinitely receiving and reciprocating it, and the Holy Spirit as the act of love itself.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Christians recognize and embrace mystery as a feature of how we know things in many areas of our lives, and view the mystery of our everyday experiences as a reflection of God\u2019s divine mystery.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ratzinger\u2019s primary achievement in his discussion of the Trinity is demonstrating its compatibility <\/em>with reason while using it as an example of God’s mystery. After all, Ratzinger\u2019s treatment of the Trinity raises more questions than it answers. For instance, the Trinity results in a picture of God that incorporates both unity and plurality, but such a being has no direct analog to anything in the material universe. The Trinity is a quintessential example of Christian mystery because if such a belief were true, it could not have arisen from logical deduction. We know it because it has been revealed to us. Nevertheless, what we do know about the Trinity has profound implications for our ontology as human beings. Trinitarian personhood grounds identity in relationships<\/em>, but relationships require the existence of an other. If personhood is part of our nature, then relationship is a fundamental part of our reality as human beings. Consequently, we are invited to abandon the conception of ourselves as isolated individuals and live in community.<\/p>

Another Christian mystery concerns Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. Ratzinger\u2019s discussion of Christ reveals an interesting insight that goes beyond the common image of Christ as the savior of humanity. He labels Christ as the \u201ctruly other,\u201d which can be understood in two ways.\u00a0 In one way, Christ is \u201cother\u201d because he has a unique purpose: his sacrifice on the Cross was done in service of the entire human race, redeeming our distorted natures from sin in a way that no other human could do. This salvific act of bringing humanity into contact with God is a communal rescue, and therefore aligns with our nature as relational beings. The Church, Ratzinger observes, is an embodiment of this interplay between unity and plurality by being a communal manifestation of Christ\u2019s mystical body.<\/p>

But Ratzinger argues that Christ being \u201ctruly other\u201d can also be interpreted as a statement about the Incarnation\u2014God assuming a human form. Christ\u2019s nature is truly mysterious, truly other, because the way in which he manifests his divinity is so unexpected. We expect God to manifest his divinity in glory, an unfathomable infinite that provokes awe and wonder. Instead, God presented us with a child in a manger, someone who appeared so finite and irrelevant that most people in his time failed to recognize him as God. Christ is \u201ctruly other\u201d insofar as his manifested divinity is alien and incomprehensible. Christ interacted with people without truly being known, and even his disciples and followers did not fully understand his teachings until after his resurrection. Indeed, such incomprehension is common among Christians even today\u2014the fact that God humbled himself as a man and died on the Cross as a pariah is wildly counterintuitive, and yet modern Christians tend to take this historical event for granted, not realizing the extent to which the Incarnation places Christianity in radical opposition to the gods of the world. We, like his first disciples, often don\u2019t understand.<\/p>

The Trinity and the Incarnation are not the only Christian mysteries, but these examples attest to the complexity and depth of truth that Christianity claims to possess. By presenting Christianity as a religion defined by mystery, Ratzinger reconciles Christianity\u2019s doctrinal complexity with its universal accessibility. Mystery permeates all of Christian truth, and that may be off-putting to those accustomed to certainty. But if Ratzinger\u2019s thesis is correct\u2014that all belief is a response to mystery\u2014then any <\/em>certainty is elusive, because all <\/em>truths contain an element of mystery. To say that Christianity is defined by mystery, therefore, is not to say that Christianity holds a monopoly on mysterious truths. Rather, Christians recognize and embrace mystery as a feature of how we know things in many areas of our lives, and view the mystery of our everyday experiences as a reflection of God\u2019s divine mystery.<\/p>

In light of an ever-present uncertainty, Ratzinger invites his readers to belief instead of despair and indifference. This opportunity is only possible because God responds to our ignorance with love. Ratzinger argues that God\u2019s love for us is without <\/em>doubt and that our knowledge of God is predicated on God first knowing us. Believing this promise may not bring certainty, but it will bring peace, and Ratzinger\u2019s journey towards this conclusion in the Introduction to Christianity<\/em> provides a way to introduce the faith without describing it as a disbelieving historian of religion would, or by approaching it as a set of propositions to be wrestled into submission in an apologetic exercise. It is a satisfying third way.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Joshua Tseng-Tham<\/em><\/strong> lives in Boston, Massachusetts. A former Managing Editor of the<\/em> Dartmouth Apologia, he graduated from Dartmouth College in 2017. Joshua now works as an analyst at an economic consulting firm. You can find him on Twitter: @JoshTsengTham.<\/em>
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Unlike too many books that attempt to explicate Christianity, Joseph Ratzinger’s allows for both the spiritual and the intellectual aspects of humankind by framing faith through mystery. 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