Many contexts have shaped Benedict XVI during his life, but how did Joseph Ratzinger come to be such a great theologian with, as Corkery puts it, "his polemical bent and his keen eye for where the Gospel and the world diverge"? Corkery's insightful book answers this question, tracing Ratzinger's development from the small Bavarian boy born on Easter Saturday 1927, through his adulthood as priest, professor, pastor, prefect, and finally pope. The book explores tensions experienced by Joseph Ratzinger that were impor- tant in shaping his chosen theological direction, as well as tensions that arise from the relationship between academic freedom and Church authority.