He’s hit his stride
Benedict is ‘in the zone,’ as the sports world would call it. He’s engaging the world and the truth, with amazing finesse.
After the strong teaching homily at the Mass in Regensburg (below), he did this:
Pope Benedict XVI issued direct challenges both to the Islamic world and to secular rationalism, in a powerful lecture delivered on September 12 at the University of Regensburg.
Speaking to an audience of scientists and scholars, at the university where he himself once taught theology, the Holy Father argued that Christianity welcomes intellectual inquiry and always reveres the truth.
He quoted a Byzantine emperor on the difference between Christianity and Islam, and quoted the Qu’ran as forbidding compulsion in religion.
From the Christian perspective, the Pontiff continued, any attempt to use religious faith as justification for violent attacks is impossible. “Violence is is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul,” he said.
Attempting to convert someone by the use of violence is also an absurdity to Christians, the Pope continued, because the use of violence is an attempt to compel someone, rather than reason with him, and that approach is foreign to the God of the Bible. The Pope noted that “not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature.”
In all his teachings, Benedict is unwrapping and clarifying the reasonableness of Christian teaching and tradition. It’s inarguable. At least, reasonably.
