Pope Francis: This is why authentic dialogue with Islam is impossible

La Salette Journey ^ | January 16, 2015 | Paul Melanson

[cleghornboy]

In his Encyclical Letter Ecclesiam Suam, Pope Paul VI told us that, "The Church must enter into dialogue with the world in which it lives. It has something to say, a message to give, a communication to make." (No. 65).

The Holy Father goes on to say that, "Dialogue, therefore, is a recognized method of the apostolate. It is a way of making spiritual contact. It should however have the following characteristics:

1) Clarity before all else; the dialogue demands that what is said should be intelligible. We can think of it as a kind of thought transfusion. It is an invitation to the exercise and development of the highest spiritual and mental powers a man possesses. This fact alone would suffice to make such dialogue rank among the greatest manifestations of human activity and culture. In order to satisfy this first requirement, all of us who feel the spur of the apostolate should examine closely the kind of speech we use. Is it easy to understand? Can it be grasped by ordinary people? Is it current idiom?

2) Our dialogue must be accompanied by that meekness which Christ bade us learn from Himself: "Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart." It would indeed be a disgrace if our dialogue were marked by arrogance, the use of bared words or offensive bitterness. What gives it its authority is the fact that it affirms the truth, shares with others the gifts of charity, is itself an example of virtue, avoids peremptory language, makes no demands. It is peaceful, has no use for extreme methods, is patient under contradiction and inclines towards generosity.

[Slyfox]

I would like to present a little history behind the problem of the Muslims and their unwillingness to dialogue.

About the time the West discovered Aristotle's Ethics and Politics in the twelfth century, Islam had reached it's peak. The top imams at the time decided that Islam would no longer use the elements of philosophy which had been their strong suit for 500 years. So in began their decline when they rejected all that they had been able to glean from the Greek philosophers.

The West then took all that the Greek civilization had and entered into the Renaissance with rather amazing results. The West left the Muslims in the dust.

So, when Pope Benedict spoke at Regensburg and got lambasted by the muslims, he was only trying to invite them back to the dialogue they dismissed in the 12th century.

The problem is that when there is no dialogue there is no chance for understanding and no chance to fix any problems.

There has been some recent activity on the willingness of Islamic philosophers willing to enter into dialogue and actually meeting with philosophers of other faiths. Let's pray that these meetings are fruitful.

[Leo Carpathian]

Trying to enlighten devil to become angel?

[Slyfox]

That is not how true philosophical dialogue works, the type in which Pope Benedict meant.

To enter into dialogue in this way means to meet in a spirit of wanting to talk. This talk will reveal what each side has in common and if each side decides to continue in a good spirit then differences can be talked about with the least amount of rancor.

The Muslims have not been in any sort of real philosophical dialogue since the 1100s. I take that back - the only person they have had any meaningful dialogue within the last number of decades was Adolph Hitler, and the result of that dialogue is what we are experiencing right now with all the jihadis.