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3. His message is Christocentric. As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger was widely criticized for his statement Dominus Iesus, released in 2000, because of its alleged anti-ecumenical claims. However, the main point of the document was the clear assertion that Jesus Christ was the divine Son of God and the only Redeemer of the world. While evangelicals and Roman Catholics have very different understandings of church life, the ministry, and sacraments, we stand together with the new pope in his unambiguous commitment to the Trinitarian and Christological faith of the Bible and the early church.

4. He is Augustinian in perspective. As a young theologian, Ratzinger delved deeply into Confessions and other writings of Augustine. "I have developed my theology in a dialogue with Augustine," he admits. As a doctoral student, his major research project was on the great medieval Augustinian, Bonaventura, whose theology he found more agreeable than that of Thomas Aquinas. This Augustinian orientation has made the new pope more sensitive to issues of spirituality in the life of faith. It has also given him a keen appreciation for another great German theologian, the Augustinian monk and church reformer Martin Luther. This enabled Ratzinger to play a key role in the historic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, an important agreement between Lutherans and Roman Catholics.

5. He champions the culture of life. On many of the pressing moral issues of the day, Benedict XVI will continue to support "the culture of life," a phrase coined by his predecessor to call Christians to stand and work together for the sanctity of human life, the sacredness of marriage bonds, and social justice for all persons made in the image of God. "A society without God will eventually destroy itself," he has said.

John Paul II was trained as a philosopher, but Benedict XVI is a theologian par excellence. He has spoken of "the ecclesial vocation of the theologian," emphasizing the fact that theology should be done in the service of the church, not as a freelance activity addressed and accountable only to the academic guild.

Without sacrificing the proper role of academic freedom and open inquiry, evangelicals can learn a lot about the importance of doing theology in the great tradition of "faith seeking understanding." Protestant liberals and Catholic progressives frequently share a common disdain for "the simple believers," the ones Benedict is so concerned to support and defend against secular ideologies, whether they come in theological garb or not.

On other matters, Benedict may move in some unexpected directions. Those who want women admitted to the Catholic priesthood will have to wait for another pope. However, Benedict may well expand the role of women in the life and even leadership of the church, in keeping with John Paul II's emphasis on the dignity and giftedness of women of faith. Also, the issue of required clerical celibacy could be revisited. As Luther and other reformers pointed out in the 16th century, the practice of not allowing priests to get married was a medieval invention—a matter of church discipline, not apostolic doctrine. Faced by dwindling seminary enrollments and an acute shortage of priests in many places, this issue may come to the fore sooner than expected.

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June 2005, Vol. 49, No. 6