On Tuesday, September 12, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a speech, “Faith, Reason, and the University: Memories and Reflections,” that is in some way offensive to, or at least harshly critical of, Muslims, medieval Persians, secular humanists, Protestants, and pretty much anyone who identifies themselves as Christian but is troubled by the influence of Hellenistic thought on theological tradition.
The remarks against Islam have drawn the most attention in the past few days, terminating today in a statement from the Vatican, mildly apologizing for any offense to Muslims and asking that they consider the “true sense” of the papal words, (see the BBC for the text of the “apology”).
In my own consideration of the “true sense” of this speech, I found that the pope raised some interesting as well as startlingly awful points. Ultimately, the pope wishes to return religion and ethics to the study of communal reason. He fears that the future of the world is in danger because of the separation of scientific reason from questions about God. Only through the exercise of communal reason in consideration of God can a dialogue between cultures take place. In fact, in his view, secularists are largely to blame for many contemporary problems because they do not view religion as a field for the exercise of reason. One would think secularists would be up in arms over such an indictment.
The pope believes that the greatest difficulties for Christian thought are to be found among those who would divorce Christian and Hellenistic thought. He blames German liberal theologians, many responsible for his own training, and their pursuit of some original Jesus who correlates with their version of reason. He most fervently blames, however, the Protestants and their doctrine of sola scriptura for the divorce of reason and Hellenistic thought from Christian thought. I guess it's time for Protestants to cut ties with the Vatican.
The pope does imply some awful perspectives about Islam. In my view it is not the quotation offered from the Byzantine emperor about Mohammed that is most offensive, as the pope is actually quoting someone else. The pope then discusses the inappropriate, unreasonable use of violence by any religion. This is the basis for his argument that collective reason in the examination of religion is necessary for the future of the world and conversation between civilizations; that only religion examined through collective reason can combat a sometimes violent, but generally subjective view of religious ethics.
Most offensive here is that the pope implies, by using Ibn Hazn’s description of God, that Muslims (and some Christians as well) may view God as so radically transcendent as to be overly capricious. In the Pope’s view, Christianity is saved by Hellenistic thought, by the logos that signals the analogy between created human reason and the Creator Spirit. For the pope, God is reasonable, and so must we be also. The unstated implication in the phrasing is that the Muslim view of God (and the Protestant one for that matter – though not stated directly) is an unreasonable one. This is the most insensitive part of the Pope’s speech, in my view, the part that many would have had reason to be irritated by, the part for which perhaps the pope should even have apologized. Though this level of the pope’s speech requires you to have actually read it and it does not sound good when condemning him in sound bites.
Ultimately, the pope either poorly or pointedly chose the textual dialogues about Christianity and Islam that transpired between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian, Ibn Hazn. They probably took place in 1391, and we have the emperor’s version, so who knows what the biases are in the text. The pope’s decision here seems to be a poor one, used in service to a far more complex and interesting point (even if I disagree with much of his argument).
Yet the only thing that is truly offensive about the text is that Pope Benedict clearly believes Catholicism to be the best path. Then again, he is the leader of that tradition, so it would be shocking if he thought otherwise. As a leader of over a billion people in a world with deep and dangerous religious divides, the pope does need to be more diplomatic than the rest of us. It is right and fair for everyone to be critical of his views. Yet to demand an apology for such a speech is to demand that everyone who believes their religion holds the truth apologize for such a view. This is not only a ridiculous violation of the allowances of free speech, it is just patently ridiculous as long as people have different beliefs about God.
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The photographs above are taken from various BBC articles. The photograph on the left is of some Indian Muslims burning the Pope's effigy; click here for the picture of the Pope in the center; and click here for the photograph on the right of some Pakistani Muslims protesting the Pope's speech.
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