The Centrality of the Nicene Homousion for Joseph Ratzinger’s Theology

With the 1700-year commemoration of the Council of Nicaea taking place in 2025, the contemporary significance of the term homoousios is subject to much discussion. With this in mind, this article makes the case that this term became central to the theology of Joseph Ratzinger during his theological development prior to taking senior clerical office. It proceeds by recalling the 1500-year commemoration of the Council of Chalcedon in 1951, which presented significant discussions around consideration of dogma as an ‘end’ or a ‘beginning’. As this consideration remains relevant to systematic theology today, not least regarding the place of metaphysics in relation to dogma, the question is applied to Ratzinger’s understanding of the homoousion. Through a close-reading of the relevant texts, the case is made that Ratzinger’s approach to the homousion includes elements of both an ‘end’ and a ‘beginning’, yet should be considered differently - as something emerging ‘in media res’. This is because of the close interrelation of the development of pneumatology and history between the Councils of Nicaea and Nicaea-Constantinople in 381.