The Nov. 21 publication of "Jesus
of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives," which completes Pope Benedict
XVI's popular three-volume series on the life and teachings of Christ,
is the latest reminder of the author's prolific output, now amounting to
more than 60 books.
One of the most prominent theologians of his generation, Pope Benedict
has produced studies in a wide range of specialized fields, including
Mariology, Christology, ecclesiology, ecumenism and eschatology. He has
written collections of prayers, meditations and even an autobiography,
all displaying his characteristic combination of rigorous scholarship
and a lucid style accessible to the educated general reader. And then
there are his official papal documents, including an encyclical on the
virtue of faith expected to appear in early 2013.
Pope Benedict's literary accomplishments clearly distinguish him from
the ranks of church leaders past and present. Yet he is not the only
distinguished writer ever to have occupied the papal throne.
Among the works of St. Gregory I (590-604), known as "Gregory the
Great," is "The Dialogues," which historian Eamon Duffy has called "one
of the most influential books of the Middle Ages." A collection of
biographies of 6th-century Italian saints, it gives most attention to
St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western monasticism.
The chapter titles clearly convey St. Gregory's emphasis on miracles, as
well as his storyteller's knack for grabbing the reader's attention:
"How Benedict, by the sign of the Holy Cross, broke a drinking glass in
pieces"; "How a loaf was poisoned, and carried far off by a crow"; and
"How the man of God knew that one of his monks had received certain
handkerchiefs."
A former monk himself, who unhappily gave up contemplative life when he
was elected pope, St. Gregory wrote a set of guidebooks, "Pastoral
Care," on the proper selection of priests, the virtues necessary for
pastoral life and the need for variety in preaching to different
audiences.
"For the things that profit some often hurt others," St. Gregory writes;
"the medicine which abates one disease aggravates another; and the food
which invigorates the life of the strong kills little children."
A different writer for a different age was Pope Pius II (1458-64),
formerly Aeneas Silvio Piccolomini, a famous Renaissance humanist
scholar and writer. A libertine in his youth, with several illegitimate
children, he renounced his dissolute ways at the age of 40 and became a
priest. But his notorious novel, "Tale of Two Lovers," remained as a
legacy of his former life.
Scandalous in another sense is Pope Pius's 13-volume autobiography, "The
Commentaries," written after he became pope, which recount the intrigue
and ambition of the Renaissance papal court in fascinating first-hand
detail.
Not least among the current pope's literary forerunners was the man who
immediately preceded him. Blessed John Paul was not only an academic
philosopher but a poet and playwright.
He was especially active as a creative writer in his 20s and 30s, as a
priest in post-war Communist Poland, when he wrote under pen names to
avoid confusion with his scholarly and religious works.
Blessed John Paul's play "Our God's Brother" is based on the true story
of a Polish painter who founded a mendicant religious order. Another
play, "The Jeweler's Shop," the story of three marriages, presents
matrimony as not merely a sentimental relationship but an image of
Trinitarian love.
The future pope's poetry draws directly on his youthful experiences,
including his work in a limestone quarry, and though not explicitly
religious in its references, reflects a deeply Christian inspiration.
"His muscles grew into the flesh of the crowd, energy their pulse. As
long as they held a hammer, as long as his feet felt the ground,"
Blessed John Paul writes in "The Quarry." "But the man has taken with
him the world's inner structure, where the greater the anger, the higher
the explosion of love."