Tuesday November 21, 10:50 PM
Pope Benedict XVI has put the finishing touches on the first volume of a work titled "Jesus of Nazareth" that will hit the bookstores in the spring, the Vatican has said.
The pope "has finished editing the first part of the book, entitled 'Jesus of Nazareth', and returned it a few days ago to the Vatican publishing service," the Vatican said in a statement.
It added that the Italian publishing house Rizzoli was engaged to edit and print the work, to be published in spring 2007, for the Vatican.
The first of two volumes covers the period between Jesus's baptism in the River Jordan to the Transfiguration in 10 chapters.
The 70-year-old Benedict, a respected theologian, explains in the preface that the first volume would be published even though he has not begun writing the second volume, which will depend on "the time and strength available" to him.
He says he began writing the book in the summer of 2003 when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger and that he has continued work on it during "all (his) free time" since being elected pope in April 2005.
"This book is absolutely not a master's thesis but merely the expression of my personal research into the face of the Lord," the pope warns.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a written note to the media that the book "is not an encyclical, which means that it can be freely discussed and criticized."
Benedict has taken into account the most recent research on Jesus to explain how the historical person and the Jesus of the Christian faith are combined in the same figure, Lombardi said.