American reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s latest book, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, so far has been restricted to quick day-one news pieces, partly because it was released the day before Thanksgiving. (The Vatican isn’t always known for its sense of moment, but let it be recorded that in this case, they managed to get book on shelves just in time for “Black Friday”.)
In fairness, even here in Rome the book hasn’t been a sensation, largely because it doesn’t contain that one thunderclap passage – reevaluating the morality of condoms, for instance (as in Benedict’s 2010 interview book with Peter Seewald), or absolving Jews from collective guilt for the death of Christ (as the pope did in his 2011 volume on Jesus.)
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