Joseph Ratzinger (1927–): How Conservative Is Benedict XVI?

Much has been made of the new pope's theological conservatism. His views on ecumenism have been characterized as cautiously open. This article clarifies these claims and points out promising topics for further dialogue between Benedict XVI and Protestant scholarship. Benedict is no more theologically conservative than the so-called postliberal and canonical approaches of George Lindbeck, Hans Frei, Brevard Childs, and some of their neo-orthodox predecessors. These theological viewpoints converge with the pope's theological method in significant ways. Traditional African-American hermeneutics may also converge with the papal method. Benedict's concerns about sixteenth-century Protestant theology regarding the authority of tradition and treatments of the doctrine of justification have been or can be successfully addressed.