Abstract / DOI
Passion for Unity: Joseph Ratzinger’s Ecumenical Hermeneutics of Unification with Focus on the Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue. In this article two different hermeneutical approaches in the ecumenical theology of the present and the past are discussed: a so-called hermeneutic of leaping from the Catholic to the charismatic structure on the one hand, and the confessionalism of separation on the other hand. Ratzinger’s own ecumenical hermeneutic is connected with his self-understanding as a theologian, influenced by De Lubac’s book Catholicisme: Faith as an internal perception which becomes present in thinking with the church fathers. In contrast to Küng’s and Rahner’s theological approaches on the basis of philosophical systems, Ratzinger chooses in his theology the way via scripture and tradition. He opens up to the challenges of today by going back to the living sources, without transforming theology from a closed scholastic system into a new systematically closed construct, but rather by making a synthesis between tradition and the present time. His ecumenical hermeneutics moves in these coordinates, like Georgy Florovsky’s theological hermeneutics.