Samenvatting

On 31 December 2022, Joseph Ratzinger, better known as Pope Benedict XVI, died. The relationship between faith and reason is central in his work. Less well known is his personalistic concept of law. According to Ratzinger, the person is fundamentally a relational and reasonable being because he is created in the image of God who is relational and reasonable. Ratzinger distinguishes between technical and moral reason. According to Ratzinger, reason needs faith to purify it from pathologies of reason. Faith instead needs reason to purge it from pathologies of faith. From this interaction between faith and reason, Ratzinger develops a personalistic concept of law in which the human person with his freedom and dignity has a central place.