The book, 137 pages in its English
version, is titled “The Infancy Narratives - Jesus of Nazareth” and is
being published simultaneously around the world in 21 languages.
It is
bound to be another international bestseller like the previous volumes.
Divided into a forward, four
chapters and an epilogue, it traces and analyses the gospel narratives
from the birth of Jesus to his presentation in the temple at the age of
12.
The previous two volumes dealt with the adult life of Jesus and his public ministry.
One section of the book is called “Virgin Birth - Myth or Historical Truth?”
The Church teaches that Jesus was
the son of God and was not conceived through sexual intercourse but by
the power of the Holy Spirit, one part of the divine trinity.
In
simple language that is at once academic but still easily accessible to a
non-specialist readership, Benedict says the story of the virgin birth
is not just a reworking of earlier Greek or Egyptian legends and
archetypal concepts but something totally new in history.
“It is God's creative word alone
that brings about something new. Jesus, born of Mary is fully man and
fully God, without confusion and without separation...” he writes.
“The accounts of Matthew and Luke
are not myths taken a stage further. They are firmly rooted, in terms of
their basic conception, in the biblical tradition of God the Creator
and Redeemer,” he writes.
“Is what we profess in the Creed
(a Christian prayer that includes belief in the virgin birth) true? he
asks. He answers: “The answer is an unequivocal yes”.
Catholics should see belief in the
virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as
“cornerstones of faith” because they are undeniable signs of God's
creative power.
“If God does not also have power
over matter, then he simply is not God,” Benedict writes.
“But he does
have this power, and through the conception and resurrection of Jesus
Christ he has ushered in a new creation.”
In
other sections of the book Benedict discusses the genealogy of Jesus,
the figure of St Joseph, the story of the wise men who the Bible says
paid tribute to the infant Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem.
In his two previous volumes on the life of Jesus, Benedict condemned violence committed in God's name and personally exonerated Jews of responsibility for the death of Jesus.