Posted on 09/14/2006 8:15:00 AM PDT by NYer
This past Monday it was Sept. 11 in Bavaria too, but you never would have known it if you'd been following Pope Benedict XVI's homecoming visit to his native region. The German pontiff stuck to his itinerary and prepared texts, staying mum on Islamic terrorism even as the fifth anniversary of 9/11 dominated headlines and discussions around the world. Aides said Benedict prayed privately for the victims of the attacks, noting that it is rare for popes to speak out on foreign trips about news events not related to the country being visited. But some reporters grumbled unfavorable comparisons with the shy German pontiff´s news-generating, geopolitically attuned predecessor.
But the Vatican press corps is slowly learning that it's best to cover Benedict on his own terms. For the 79-year-old would not stay silent for long on the topic of faith-based terror. On Tuesday, in a riveting and provocative university lecture, the Pope explored the philosophical and historical differences between Islam and Christianity—a speech that would become the surprise centerpiece of a five-day visit that many had expected would be mostly just a walk down memory lane. There is little doubt left that Benedict is indeed highly attuned to the risks of fundamentalist terrorism. In fact, it is testament to where this problem stands on his list of priorities that he used the occasion of his triumphant return to Regensburg University, where he taught theology in the 1970s, to deliver a lecture that explored how Christians and Muslims may have historically viewed the relationship between violence and faith, based on the two religions' conceptions of the divinity.
His discourse Tuesday sought to delineate what he sees as a fundamental difference between Christianity's view that God is intrinsically linked to reason (the Greek concept of logos) and Islam´s view that "God is absolutely transcendent." Benedict said that Islam teaches that God's "will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality." The risk he sees implicit in this concept of the divine is that the irrationality of violence can potentially be justified if someone believes it is God's will. "As far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma which nowadays challenges us directly. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?"
This is indeed Benedict doing it on his own terms. Rather than tackling the challenge of fundamentalist terrorism with a pithy remark packaged for the 9/11 anniversary or reaching for a John Paul-inspired sweeping gesture, the professor Pope went digging into his books. He went so far as to quote a 14th century Byzantine emperor´s hostile view of Islam's founder. "The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the Pope said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'" Benedict added "I quote" twice to make it clear these were someone else's words. Nevertheless this reference was undoubtedly the most provocative moment of a provocative lecture. In a sense, explicitly including the Muslim prophet by name, and citing the concept of jihad, was a flashing neon signal to the world that the soft-spoken Pope intends to make himself heard clearly on this defining tension of our times.
It is not the first time he has entered the fray. On his last trip to Germany, to Cologne for Catholic World Youth Day in August 2005, he told a group of Muslims that they have a responsibility to try to halt the violence carried out in the name of their religion. Even earlier on this trip to Bavaria, which ends Thursday, he seemed to refer to Islam's negative view of a Western society that has too little faith, and cited it as the cause for tensions.
But Tuesday's university lecture was a watershed. After laying out the historical contrasts with Islam, the Pope used much of the discourse to call on the West, and Europe in particular, to clearly affirm the value of a faith in God —and a God built on reason. "While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them," he said. "We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons."
And so the question is: what then is driving the pontiff to make this particular call to a renewed sense of faith based on reason? Naturally, the leader of Roman Catholicism has an inherent proselytizing purpose. But in the context of this groundbreaking speech, there is another objective.
In the penultimate phrase of his lecture, Benedict said: "It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures." Ah yes, the "d" word. "Dialogue" has become a familiar papal term ever since John Paul launched the first of many interfaith gatherings in the medieval Italian city of Assisi two decades ago. Just last month, in fact, was the 20th anniversary of that first encounter. Benedict, as he did last year, skipped the anniversary event in St. Francis' hometown—and Vatican insiders say he has always been skeptical of the encounters, which he worries can water down differences between faiths. But he did send a written message for the first time this year, which heralded John Paul's "prophecy" in promoting a peaceful dialogue among different religions, and "its timeliness in light of what has happened in the past 20 years and of humanity's situation today."
Thus taken together with this commitment to dialogue, the Pope's lecture in Regensburg seems to be saying: Yes, we must indeed talk, but now is the time for hard questions—not hugs and handshakes. The upside to Benedict's approach is that a brilliant theologian-Pope may help sharpen the terms of the debate. The downside is that he risks not connecting with the masses—or worse, being misinterpreted and manipulated by both his own followers, and those of other faiths. As a worldwide preacher—and no longer just an ivory-tower intellectual or Vatican bureaucrat—Benedict must still further synthesize his message. He may get no better stage than on his next scheduled foreign voyage. In late November, the leader of the world's one billion Catholics is scheduled to land in Turkey, home to 70 million Muslims.
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This brilliant and learned Pope continues to amaze and inspire me. Viva il Papa!
I'm thrilled that Benedict is our Pope!
Thanks much for the link to the original speech.
If it really comes down to this, a couple of things follow. First, Islam could easily embrace insanity (as it has); and second, if God is not linked to reason (He IS reason, of course), then how can any prophet speak for him?
Ping!
this is the second Pope since i've been a Catholic. I'm not disappointed.
Whoever Jeff Israel is, he's been doing a surprisingly excellent job of covering BXVI (whenever I see "Time" on anything, I'm prepared for the worst!). He really seems to understand what the Pope is getting at.
I don't think there's any fear that Pope Benedict won't "connect with the masses," though. If anything, the "masses" are waiting for leadership on this issue, and after many years of feel-good but meaningless gestures, the "masses" may finally be getting what they have been waiting for.
Being part of the masses, I can say that at least I feel a lot better knowing that the Pope is giving this serious thought and realizes the importance of having a defined position, and also that he intends to defend Christianity and not simply overlook or minimize Islam's assualts upon the Christianity and Christians.
I love this Pope!
The Pope says in his discourse that the irrationality and arbitrary nature of the Islamic god means that said god could do anything, even command idol worship! In other words, the Islamic god is chaos and nihilism, having no reason or structure within himself or his creation and communicating with human beings solely through arbitrary laws and commands.
It was a great address, not exactly a light read, but worth reading from start to finish. I read it in Spanish, but it may be on the Vatican website in English now.
Yup, NYer has a link to the English translation on the Vatican's Web site in reply #1.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
Those are two very different things, potentially. Did he say the Muslim concept was that God has no reason within himself? Or only that his reason is inscrutible to man?
I watched this morning's visit to the Cathedrale in Freising. People in the crowd pushed gifts into the pope's hands. One photo op and Gaenswein took the gift, then handed it to another aide. Each motion was so finely tuned, like an organ.
It's all just a happy memory now.
Bump
No reason.
A little context, which I'm sure you, NYer, already know.
September 12 marked the beginning of the fall of Islam's conquest of Central Europe. From Wikipedia:
>> The Battle of Vienna (as distinct from the Siege of Vienna in 1529) took place on September 11 and September 12, 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by Turks for two months. It was the first large-scale battle of the Great Turkish War, yet with the most far-reaching consequences. <<
>> The siege itself began on 14 July 1683, by the Ottoman army commanded by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. The decisive battle took place on 12 September, after the united relief army of 70,000 men had arrived, pitted against the Ottoman army of approximately 138,000 men — although a large number of these played no part in the battle, as only 50,000 were experienced soldiers, and the rest less-motivated supporting troops.[1] King Jan III Sobieski of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been made Commander in Chief of his own 30,000-man Polish forces and the 40,000 troops of Habsburg and their allies, led by Charles V, Duke of Lorraine. <<
>> The battle marked the turning point in the 300-year struggle between the forces of the Central European kingdoms and the Ottoman Empire. Over the sixteen years following the battle, the Habsburgs of Austria, and their allies gradually occupied and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania, which had been largely cleared by the Turkish forces. <<
The date of the start of the battle, September 11, has been suggested as a motivation for the timing of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. September 12, however, is an optional Catholic feast day, in honor of the battle.
"It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures."
The Pope invites them to dialogue ... to behave like civilised human beings.
They tell him to bugger off.
And the world watches, and learns. At least, those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
ping
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