The Pope’s intriguing words.
A momentous digression.
By Paul J Cella Posted in Culture — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Yesterday in Regensburg, Germany, Pope Benedict XVI uttered these words in a lecture:
Show me just what Mohammed 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.
Admittedly, he was quoting — a point he emphasized several times — the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, from a dialogue with an unnamed Persian Muslim. But this selection can hardly have been accidental. Manuel II was the father of Constantine XI, the last Byzantine Emperor, a brave and pious man who died on the wall of the great city when the Turks finally overran it. Manuel also undertook a fateful journey in the early 15th century to the courts of Europe, a journey that amounted chiefly to beggary: he needed aid from the West or his city (for he was an emperor with no empire) would fall. More humiliating than even this — and the tragic enmity between Greek and Roman churches in that age should not be underestimated — was another event, before Manuel’s ascension to the imperial throne: as a subject of the sultan, owing him tribute, Manuel and his army were obliged to join the Turks in the reduction and conquest of the last free Greek city in Anatolia, Philadelphia.
Read on...
It would be difficult be discover in history two more tragic figures than Manuel and his son, the men who ruled when the dying embers of Rome, once pagan, now Christian, once Italian, now Greek, were finally trod out.
The Pope’s speech, according to reports, largely consisted of another complicated entreaty to the West to retreat from that gaunt secularism which has issued in an abiding ignorance of all things than cannot give an immediate account of themselves at the bar of rationalism. Anyone not committed a narrow rationalism, “see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions,” and this, warned Benedict, is a “dangerous state of affairs.” Indeed it is. But it is hard to put down the suspicious that the Pope knew well that his little digression into the question of Islam would be the headline-maker.
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The Pope’s intriguing words. 8 Comments (0 topical, 8 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Anyone ever arguing the fact that we're in trouble...
"Always be honest with yourself even if you are honest with no one else...
...It helps you keep track of your lies..."
--Myself
(as the speech continues...)
'The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably ("syn logo") is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats.... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...." The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature.'
(from: http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=94748 )
Here is a serious thinker, unafraid either of his faith or his own intellect.
De-Hellenization first emerges in connection with the fundamental postulates of the Reformation in the 16th century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by philosophy, that is to say an articulation of the faith based on an alien system of thought. As a result, faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching philosophical system.
In other words, he argues that to promote faith over reason as underpinning our relationship with God, the Reformers threw the baby out with the holy water.
A Roman who understands the importance of the Greeks to understanding the death of a Jew. Who knew?
...but few will dare say it. I spend a fair amount of time studying the bible, religion, ancient phophecy, and history. In my opinion, Islam is the "one world religion" spoken of in Revelation. What other religion demands that it's followers kill non-believers? Satanists don't even do that. I have some theories regarding the false prophet, the prostitute, the beast she rides on, and how this all ties into Islam and the ends times and the corrolations are eerie.
I am not the first to come up with this theory. I could go on and on about this and explain but I won't take the space here to do it. I am however working on an article on this very subject for my website and it should be ready in a couple of weeks on...
Frankly, if it is controversial for the Pope to speak negatively about another faith, we're in trouble. As a matter of earthly politics, we expect our religious leaders to espouse tolerance; as a political strategy, it is sometimes prudent for people of many faiths to form alliances within free societies against secularists. But as a matter of propagating the faith - the first duty of the clergy - of course, the Pope is entitled to explain why another faith is false prophecy and leads to ill.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill