Based on countless hours of interviews in Rome with Pope Benedict XVI himself, this first volume of an authoritative biography follows the early life of the future Pope, from his days growing up in Germany and his conscription into the Hitler Youth during World War II to his career as an academic theologian and eventual Archbishop of Munich.

The second volume of Peter Seewald's magisterial life of Pope Benedict covers the period from the Second Vatican Council (1965-68) to the present day. Emeritus Pope Benedict commands both adulation and unremitting criticism. In this second volume of Peter Seewald's authoritative biography, the story runs from the Second Vatican Council (1965-68) that shaped Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's conservative ideas about the role of the Catholic Church, through...