I don't know if you guys have paid much attention to Pope Benedict XVI's speech last week - it caused some controversy. Churches were firebombed, a nun was shot to death, all over a quotation the pope made in the speech.

I read the English translation, and I was surprised at its complexity. I need to read the German original, but I think that would be tough - I had enough trouble grasping the English version.

Here is the controversial bit: Benedict quotes a dialogue from the 1390s where the Byzantine emperor discusses Christianity and Islam with an "educated Persian." The topic is involuntary, violent conversion to a religion. (A recent example can be found in the two American journalists who were forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam.) Benedict describes the language as being: in erstaunlich schroffer, uns überraschend schroffer Form, so he arguably thinks the language is too harsh. The Byzantine emperor said, „Zeig mir doch, was Mohammed Neues gebracht hat, und da wirst du nur Schlechtes und Inhumanes finden wie dies, daß er vorgeschrieben hat, den Glauben, den er predigte, durch das Schwert zu verbreiten“.

The nur Schlechtes und Inhumanes quote upset quite a few people...

But to focus on this introductory section is to ignore an amazing and very complex speech.
Benedict used the controversial part to reach the conclusion that, for Christians, "The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature."

And that's the central message of the speech (entitled "Faith, Reason and the University"):
faith requires reason, but reason also requires faith.

You guys should read the whole speech, but one point to come away with is found in Benedict's concluding paragraph: "A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."

It's very heavy stuff, but I think it is worth your time to give it a read!
Benedict is a very, very intelligent man!

- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 9/20/2006 10:18:00 AM