Pope rejects image of 'revolutionary' Christ in new book



PARIS- Pope Benedict XVI has dismissed the image of Jesus Christ as a "political revolutionary" in a new book out on Thursday in which he also absolves the Jews of responsibility for Christ's death.
The pope writes in the second volume of "Jesus of Nazareth", his biography of Christ, according to an Italian version of the book, that the son of God "did not come as a destroyer, he did not bring the sword of a revolutionary".



Pope rejects image of 'revolutionary' Christ in new book
Christ instead came to the world "with the gift of healing", the pope says, adding: "His power is the power of love."
The book is due to be formally unveiled by the Vatican later on Thursday.
The Vatican said 1.2 million copies of the book had already been published in seven languages, including 200,000 copies in German, 150,000 in English and 100,000 in French and Spanish. E-book and audio book versions are planned.
In the biography, Benedict also speaks out against religious violence, following a wave of attacks on Christians in several parts of the Muslim world, including the New Year's Eve bomb outside a church in Egypt which killed 23.
"The terrible consequences of religiously-motivated violence are all too clear," he said.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church also touches on topical issues, such as the staying power of the world's despots. "Isn't it true that the biggest dictators are kept in power by ideological lies?" he said.
To the acclaim of Jewish groups worldwide, Benedict exonerates the Jewish people as a whole from responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Tensions between Judaism and Catholicism have been high for centuries because of Catholic blame of the Jews for Christ's death, and a Vatican Council in the 1960s that exonerated them failed to end tensions.
The first volume of "Jesus of Nazareth", which went on sale in Italy on the pope's 80th birthday in 2007, sold well, with 50,000 copies of the 350,000-strong print run snapped up on the first day.
"Jesus of Nazareth", has been seen as Benedict's answer to popular publications such as Dan Brown's best-selling "The Da Vinci Code".
In his controversial 2010 book "Light of the World", based on 20 hours of interviews conducted by German journalist Peter Seewald, the pope broke a taboo with his declaration that condom use was acceptable "in certain cases".
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Thursday, March 10th 2011
AFP
           


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