Speaking of studying religion…
The last couple of posts (below) look at a new study out of Baylor University on the spiritual life of Americans.
While on the topic, I eagerly recommend you read Pope Benedict’s words from this week’s visit to Germany. He has been brilliant. And everything he says points to current issues, headline news, and the eternal truths behind human behavior.
Vatican Information Service has also been covering his appearances and addresses, like the profound one at the University of Regensburg, where he was vice rector.
In his long address to the assembled academics, the Holy Father reflected upon the relationship between faith and reason.
Now that would be a compelling study for Baylor University to launch, as a follow up to the ‘who believes what’ survey.
Having first dedicated some remarks to those who use threats or violence to oblige others to convert, Benedict XVI went on to identify “a dilemma which nowadays challenges us directly,” asking: “Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God’s nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God.”
And those sociologists in that report define ‘belief in the Bible’ as a mostly ‘evangelical’ trait.
Are any of these ‘scholars’ — or reporters, for that matter — reading Benedict these days? If they want to claim intellectual honesty, they should.
