Theologians reflect on Pope Benedict XVI's theology

Published: 2005-05-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As a theologian the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI has been described as Augustinian rather than Thomist and more "ressourcement" than "aggiornamento." These are categories many Catholics may not recognize, but theologians who know his work said they help characterize important aspects of how the new pope, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, thinks. The French term "ressourcement," meaning a return to the sources, and the Italian term "aggiornamento," updating or modernizing, were two ways of speaking about the task of church reform and renewal at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. In the years following the council, they began to be seen as distinct terms identifying different views of the council. "I think Cardinal Ratzinger had some concerns with what he perceived to be the drift of some of post-Vatican II Catholic theology and, to compensate for that, perhaps stressed the 'ressourcement,'" said Father Robert P. Imbelli, a theologian at Boston College. "But I don't think he is unaware of the need for 'aggiornamento.' The question is the relative balance between them," he said.

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