VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has rejected the idea of Jesus as a “revolutionary” saying he used the “power of love” in a new book in which he also says the Jews were not responsible 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”. Christ instead came to the world “with the gift of healing”, the pope says, adding: “His power is the power of love.” The book went on sale in bookshops on Thursday, and will be officially unveiled by the Vatican later in the day. 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 says that Jesus separated religion and politics, which he states had previously been inseparable.
“This separation of politics and faith in the message he brings, was only possible through the cross,” he said.
The 83-year old pontiff 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.
