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This book has also inspired me to add several other books both by and about Pope Benedict XVI to my reading list. One of my childhood memories is the year of three popes. As a revert it was the mass, the liturgy, confessions, and Mary that drew me back. I was never a John Paul II fan boy, but over time I have had a growing appreciation for Benedict XVI. The more I read by and about this man the more I am impressed. And this book by Pearce is an excellent volume. The description of this book is:\r\n\r\n“Pope Benedict XVI will go down in Church history as one of the greatest popes. In this heartfelt defense of Pope Benedict’s words and works, a tribute to his life and legacy and a homage to his sanity and sanctity, Joseph Pearce’s biography provides an unforgettable encounter with this great historical figure. \r\n\r\nAs the defender of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI fought tirelessly and largely successfully against the forces of secularism first as the indomitable Ratzinger and then as the incomparable supreme pontiff. As an uncompromising defender of the dignity of the human person, he fought the wickedness of the world in his unremitting battle against the dictatorship of relativism and its culture of death. Within the Church, he fought against the spirit of the world in his war on modernism and its worship of the spirit of the age, restoring the splendor of truth in his defense of orthodoxy and the splendor of the liturgy in his defense of tradition. Years from now, Catholics will still look back on Pope Benedict’s enduring legacy with enormous gratitude. For he successfully steered the barque of Peter in charity and truth against the evil tides that sought to engulf the Church.”\r\n\r\nThe chapters in this volume are:\r\n\r\nIn Gratitude\r\nForeword\r\nPrologue: An Apology\r\n 1. Living with Big Brother\r\n 2. Heilige Geist or Zeitgeist?\r\n 3. Weapons of Mass Destruction\r\n 4. The Rise of Ratzinger and the Fall of Man\r\n 5. Being Human\r\n 6. The Spirit and Antispirit of Vatican II\r\n 7. Sex, Slavery, and False Liberation\r\n 8. The Spirit of the Liturgy\r\n 9. Habemus Papam!\r\n10. Young People and the Love of God\r\n11. Faith and Reason\r\n12. Restoring Tradition\r\n13. Faith, Hope, and Clarity\r\n14. God and Globalism\r\n15. A Pilgrimage to England\r\n16. Defender of the Faith\r\nAbout the Author\r\nNotes\r\nSelected Bibliography\r\nIndex\r\n\r\nThis book was an absolutely fascinating read. I started reading it and worked my way through. Once I was done I used adaptive technology to listen to it a second time through. In the acclaim for this book George Cardinal Pell states:\r\n\r\n“Joseph Pearce’s biography demonstrates the immense devotion and enthusiasm Pope Benedict evoked among the young disciples of Jesus around the world. Pope Benedict is probably the best theologian among all the popes and he should become a Doctor of the Church. Joseph Pearce’s work will help further this cause.”\r\n\r\nIt echo’s the sentiments I have from this volume and my ever growing love and appreciation for Pope Benedict XVI. Scott Hahn captures that sentiment even more so in the forward, for he states:\r\n\r\n“This book is surprising. This book is unique.\r\n\r\nBut it earns those adjectives not because it is about the man we knew as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and know today as Pope Emeritus Benedict. Books about that man constitute a genre by themselves—and I love those books, because I love the man.\r\n\r\nThere are thick volumes that situate him in history, that summarize his writings on the liturgy, that synthesize his theology of the Church, that place him in relation to one or another thinker, that trace the development of his thought on faith and culture.\r\n\r\nThis book touches on all those things, but only in a subordinate way.\r\nJoseph Pearce did not write this book to analyze anything, or advance an agenda, or incite responses from excitable academics or pundits.\r\n\r\nWhat he did was produce a portrait of a beautiful man—a shy, kind, Christian man who received many gifts from God in the course of his life. And, as we see in these pages, he labored to use all those gifts in loving service of the Giver.”\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd his forward ends with these words:\r\n\r\n“At the end of the book, the response of my heart rose with words from the Roman Missal: Deo gratias! Thanks be to God!\r\n\r\nThanks, too, to my friend, Mr. Pearce.”\r\n\r\nAnd that is how I feel. And writing this review early in 2022 I believe this is a volume that will put to rest rumours and attacks against Pope Benedict XVI, as a way of distracting the faithful, the media, and the world from what is happing under the current pontiff. From the prologue and the opening chapter ‘An Apology’ Pearce used his keen insight and deep reading of history to bring this work to life. It is a vibrant and penetrating work. One that will stir the hearts and spirit of the faithful, and one that will cause angst and hand writing by others. For Pearce captures the reactions to Benedict XVI in those two camps clearly:\r\n\r\n“One imagines that similar scenes of joy erupted throughout the world wherever two or three faithful Catholics gathered together. In contrast, the election of Ratzinger was greeted with grief and horror by those heretical theologians and cafeteria Catholics whose heresies and backsliding equivocations had been condemned by the new Pope during his many years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As usual, these wolves in sheep’s clothing howled in unison with the wolves in the secular media, uniting themselves with the avowed enemies of the Church in their hatred of the hero of orthodoxy who had forced them into retreat during his years as John Paul II’s faithful and fearless servant. In the war of words that followed the Pope’s election, the enemies of orthodoxy decried the new German shepherd as “God’s Rottweiler.” Although the gentle and saintly Ratzinger did not deserve such an epithet, it is ironically apt that the wolves who would devour the flock should hate the Rottweiler who had courageously stopped them from doing so!”\r\n\r\nHe concludes that section with these words:\r\n\r\n“The ultimate justification for this book is that it is an apology in the other and better sense of the word. It is an apologia: a spirited and heartfelt defense of Pope Benedict’s words and works, a tribute to his life and legacy, an homage to his sanity and sanctity. It is a vigorous defense of a rigorous and vigorous defender of the Faith. For this, at least, I make no apology because no apology is necessary.”\r\n\r\nThis book is a volume I am certain will rouse some controversy. But it is also one I believe will inspire, encourage and challenge all who approach it with an open heart, mind, and spirit. When I was younger, I did not appreciate Pope Benedict XVI’s heart and mind, as I have grown older and engaged more and more with his works and works about him, there is a sense of lost years. I appreciate that Pearce has written this book with devotion and passion. I highly recommend it!","date":"Dec 26th 2023"},{"name":"Matthew K.","rating":"5","title":"A Splendid Biography of Pope Benedict XVI","text":"Joseph Pearce is one of the most gifted Catholic writers of our times, and his new biography on Pope Benedict XVI further cements this belief. As Pope Benedict XVI nears his last days, it is great to reflect on his legacy... a legacy unmatched by few popes of our times. He will go down in Church History as one if not the greatest theologians among popes as Cardinal Pell and many others have said. One of the most beautiful lines from Pearce is: &quot;There is little doubt that one of the richest gifts that Ratzinger has bequeathed to the Church is his tireless work in both word and deed to restore the splendor of the liturgy.&quot;","date":"May 24th 2023"},{"name":"HENRI F.","rating":"5","title":"Awesome Catholic biography","text":"I love this book because in less than 200 pages one becomes aware of the immense contribution of the late Pope. Evidently, Benedict XVI will remain for us a great theologian and thinker as well as a model of humility.\nFrom Scott Hahns foreword to the end of the book, the reader is fascinated by Ratzinger incisive mindù in addressing difficult topics such as Being Human (Chapter 5), The Spirit of the Liturgy (Chapter 8), Faith and Reason (Chapter 11), and Restoring Tradition (Chapter 12). Throughout the book the author mentions: the influence of great Catholic writers (e.g., Chesterton, Tolkien), the encyclicals of previous Popes, Ratzingers three encyclicals and his speeches given throughout the world.\nAny reader will no doubt be enriched historically and spiritually by this well-written book by Joseph Pearce, which I warmly recommend. The Catholic reader will do well to also read Ratzingers encyclicals and Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.","date":"Jan 14th 2023"},{"name":"GNA N.","rating":"5","title":"The Theologian Pope","text":"Joseph Pearce has written another amazing work. This time the subject is the gentle intellectual Pope Benedict XVI. Born in Bavaria and growing up in unbelievably turbulent times, the young boy who would spend his life in deep love of God and of Christ;s often wayward flock, Pope Benedict was an amazing combination of strict academic and warm human being. Mr. Pearce is the biographer par excellence of such literary giants as Shakespeare, Chesterton and Wilde. His own autobiography is a fascinating conversion story. In this slim volume he captures the essence of the spirit of a man of giant intelligence and deep love of God.","date":"Jan 11th 2023"},{"name":"Christine O.","rating":"5","title":"Benedict XVI Defender of the Faith","text":"This book changed my views on Pope Benedict XVI. As a former feminist, I had little respect for this man, but Joseph Pearce has enlightened me to see the Pope Benedict is indeed a staunch defender of the faith. It is a travesty he is no longer active as pope.","date":"May 7th 2022"}]},"bulk_discount_rates":[],"meta_keywords":"","show_quantity_input":1,"title":"Benedict XVI: Defender of the Faith","gift_wrapping_available":false,"min_purchase_quantity":0,"customizations":[],"images":[{"data":"https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-iuax7bpgx3/images/stencil/{:size}/products/3425/12655/benedict-xvi-defender-of-the-faith__60022.1743716572.jpg?c=1","alt":" Benedict XVI: Defender of the Faith "},{"data":"https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-iuax7bpgx3/images/stencil/{:size}/products/3425/13190/benedict-xvi-defender-of-the-faith__93052.1743717498.jpg?c=1","alt":" Benedict XVI: Defender of the Faith "},{"data":"https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-iuax7bpgx3/images/stencil/{:size}/products/3425/12997/benedict-xvi-defender-of-the-faith__90199.1743717115.jpg?c=1","alt":" Benedict XVI: Defender of the Faith 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