The Open Circle; The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood
New York: Sheed and Ward, 1966. Octavo. original pink cloth, spine lettered in black, original dust jacket. An about-fine copy. Item #1680
"'SEPARATED BRETHREN'...EXPRESSES THE UNITY THAT REMAINS AS WELL AS THE TRAGEDY OF DIVISION"
First American edition of the English translation of Joseph Ratzinger's essay on the "Problem of Christian Brotherhood"—an early expression of the ecumenical ideas later adopted by the Second Vatican Council.
As a young peritus to Cardinal Josef Frings, Joseph Ratzinger was one of the brightest young minds at the Council. Though the essay—originally delivered as an address in Vienna during Easter 1958—was written before the Council, it wasn't published until after the close of the last session in December 1965. The Introduction by Robert McAfee Brown of Stanford University (a Protestant observer at the Council) stresses the "pre-conciliar and pre-Johannine" nature of the work and stresses that Ratzinger's essay "is not so much the sort of thing made possible by Vatican II, but on the contrary, the sort of thing that made Vatican II possible."
Prefaced with an epigraph from Matthew: ("You have one teacher and you are all brethren"), the work is divided into three main sections: I. The Idea of Christian Brotherhood before and outside Christianity, II. The Development of the Idea of Brotherhood in Early Christianity, and III. An Attempt at Synthesis. Ratzinger distinguishes the "closed brotherhoods" of the ancient mystery religions from the idea of an "open brotherhood" fostered by the Enlightenment before suggesting "an attempt at synthesis" of the two. Discarding the old category of "heresy," Ratzinger acknowledges the "positive ecclesial nature" of Protestantism today, recognizing the "mutual relationship of separated Christians." Translated by W.A. Glen-Doeple and published in England in the same year under the title Christian Brotherhood. With Ratzinger's brief Foreword, dated "Bonn, August 1960." Approbations.
Price: $100.00