Jim handed out a review of Benedict's book tonight from NCR ... you can read the review online until, uh, Monday when the free service turns subscription only.

I faltered at the review's first line:

This book is elegantly written ...

... because, uh, the book's a translation.

Is the reviewer cracking a joke?

"Maybe Fr. O'Leary read the original German version," Jim offered. A teacher of English lit in Japan ... uh, no, this is a review of the English version.

Ratzinger has been blessed with able, faithful translators over the years. Fr. O'Leary might here be acknowledging those unsung wordsmiths. Since those few are the last kind words he has to say in his review of the book, there's all the more reason to consider whom he intends to praise.

Jim shamed me somewhat into buying the book. It happened like this: he admitted that he hadn't read it yet and asked me whether I had. No, no, of course not. Secretly fearing I won't understand it. Without reading the rest of Fr. O'Leary's review, I ran out and got it, along with some other conservative books. When in Rome ... or rather Howell.

Then I read the rest of the review and kicked myself. The book is as I suspected. Naturally I avoided it. There's no surprise ending, no plot twist. WYSIWYG. The only thing ... it's way SMALLER than I expected. Thin and small all 'round. Did I buy the Compendium by mistake?! I guess things just look bigger on blogs.

The final sentences from Fr. O'Leary's review:

"If Benedict is right, a whole century of New Testament scholarship will have to be radically corrected and largely jettisoned.

For most readers of Benedict’s book this will be received as an immense liberation, a recovery of the fullness of Christ in every page of scripture, but for critical exegetes and theologians it is more likely to induce gnashing of teeth and the sense of doors being locked."

Deus avertat!