Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977

#287
Title: Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977
Author: Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Translator: Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis
Publisher:  Ignatius Press
Year: 1998
Country: Vatican City
156 pages

A memoir of now-Pope Benedict XVI's first 50 years. It's not clear that this was intended for a general audience--Ratzinger seems to have had in mind a reader familiar with Church infrastructure, politics, and historical and contemporary writers (not just those of the stature of Aquinas, but many others whose perspectives are not adequately explained). While Ratzinger's narrative of the Church is interesting, especially in relation to his participation in Vatican II, I can only follow most of it passively.

This memoir is more of an account (and then this happened... and then this... ) than a narrative (and then because that happened, this happened). The points at which a causal sequence of events are identified (I studied this, then was employed to teach it) are generally career-oriented. I found myself wishing for more about Ratzinger's emotions and thoughts. While there is some representation of this more personal aspect of his life, it tends to be told, not shown, asserted but not elaborated upon. In particular, I would have liked to know more about how his dislike for the Nazi regime and his forced servitude as a teenager affected his understanding of authority and ideology. I also would have liked more childhood photos, if they exist; oddly, the book includes a large number of photos from after 1977, when its account ends.

The most interesting aspect of the memoir was the opportunity to read Ratzinger's passionate convictions on the nature of revelation, which help me to understand an aspect of Church doctrine and religious belief that I find puzzling.