Abstract
Winfried König:
„If you do not believe, you will not remain” (Is 7:9).
Faith in the Living God according to the 1959 Inaugural Lecture of J. Ratzinger
(FKTh 2022-1, p. 1–14)
Already at the beginning of his academic career, Joseph Ratzinger was concerned with the question of the “God of faith” in view of the decline in the practice of the faith during the 1950s. Within the confessional landscape of West Germany, two trends were intellectually opposed to each other: a Catholic “scholastic theology” and a Protestant “Bible faith”. Ratzinger points to a third position: faith in the living, personal God. In this way, he succeeds in making the connection between the transcendent God and his revelation in time and history through the fulfillment of the prophetic promises. Furthermore, the human person’s relationship with God is a dialogical event, indeed, one of love. In a constant exchange of this loving dialogue with the living God, men and women find meaning and become able to experience the fullness of communion.