Posted on 09/12/2006 11:52:19 AM PDT by kellynla
REGENSBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Pope Benedict invited Muslims on Tuesday to join a dialogue of cultures based on the premise that the concept of an Islamic "holy war" is unreasonable and against God's nature.
In a major lecture at Regensburg University, where he taught theology between 1969 to 1977, Benedict said Christianity is tightly linked to reason and contrasted this view with those who believe in spreading their faith by the sword.
The 79-year-old Pontiff avoided making a direct criticism of Islam, packaging his comments in a highly complex academic lecture with references ranging from ancient Jewish and Greek thinking to Protestant theology and modern atheism.
In his lecture, the Pope quoted, among others, the 14th century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologos who wrote that Mohammad had brought things "only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
The Pope, who used the terms "jihad" and "holy war" in his lecture, added in his own words: "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul".
Benedict several times quoted Emperor Manuel's argument that spreading the faith through violence is unreasonable and that acting without reason -- "logos" in the original Greek -- was against God's nature.
At the end of his lecture, the Pope again quoted Manuel and said: "It is to this great 'logos', to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures."
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
Good for you. Restraint is a virtue.
The pope knows very well that our fallen nature is bleared, smeared, cracked, deformed. That's why we need a Savior and not just a seminar.
"Appeared to criticize" probably means it was some slight reference, oblique and open to interpretation.
"Some" (no all) Protetant theologians posit an absolute incompatibility betwen faith and reason; "some" Third Worlders are still contaminated with Liberation Theology Marxism, which stresses neither faith nor reason, but oppression and power and the supposedly irresistable forces of history. These may be the ones he'd want to single out.
Where's that great picture from? Wasn't there a mural of Maohammad being dragged into hell in some church in Spain?
No, it's tantamount to dining with a sinner.
Keep in mind, please, that Muslims --- like any sinners --- are not demons. They are the demon's captives, whom God wills to rescue, enlighten, and save.
You don't seem to give him credit for being a chess player who has more than one move in mind.
There was an excellent post a few days ago of an article discussing Islam (maybe the Crocker article?) in which the writer observed that the entire Western system is based upon the concept of natural law, even our purely secular systems, and that one of the reasons it is so difficult to install certain types of government or concepts of human life in Muslim countries is that Islam simply does not believe in natural law.
That is, "Allah" is an unpredictable, arbitrary god who is subject to no internal order or reason himself and has not established any natural order or law in the world, either. The only law that exists is the combination of ritual law and criminal law that constitutes sharia; and this is in itself purely arbitrary and exists without referrents of any kind.
My personal feeling is that "Allah" is a demon or Satan, because chaos, nihilism, and prideful isolation are characteristic of Satan as a result of his having rejected God and the order or law of God.
It's not a conclusion I would reach lightly or apply universally to all Muslims, but it's worrisome when I see Martin's account of how Satan exploits a certain ambiguity in order to gain entrance into souls.
If this is true, BXVI needs to take up Jesus' own recommended weapon for casting out demons. He needs to call the whole Church --- all 1.1 billion of us ---to fast for the spiritual rescue of Muslims.
I tend to agree with your hunch that "Allah" is a demon. I can't believe that Allah is God because he isn't rational, just, or loving. Frankly, I'm sick of people equating Allah with God. The Muslims believe in something but it sure isn't the God that I worship.
Here is the head of security....
So true.
Thanks Frank! Always learning with my FRiends.
"A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures," he said.
Please notice that he's criticizing the secularized West, too. He's saying you can't enter into a "dialogue of cultures" if you've yanked out the roots of YOUR OWN culture.
We've trivialized our Judeo-Christian heritage. Instead of being one of the prime sources of education, law, popular custom and public ceremony in this country, it's been banned from the public square and relegated to a private hobby, like collecting beer bottles or raising budgies.
Islam has become salient in the West not because it's a spiritual powerhouse but because the West has insisted on turning itself a spiritual vacuum.
A very lofty, and utopian, goal, requiring ones' ignorance to also exclude the historic determination of the heathen muslim world to destroy the Roman Catholic Church, and kill every Catholic refusing to adore their false idol, invented by a child predator to support his real life dementia.
The Koran instructs its barbaric adherents to lie without hesitation to any non-muslim. How then can you defend their presence before the Supreme Pontiff of the One True Faith? Further, that heathen book of lies declares it a duty for every muslim - failing to convert an infidel - to cut off his or her head. Surely you are not blind to this barbarism as well?
The heresies of NewChurch include its' zeal to embrace every non-Catholic in the world - while giving legitimacy to their false idols and teachings. The seat of Peter has, as your writings refuse to take into account, blessed the protection of His Church by the sword.
The same satanic demons the Pope wants to placate are the progeny of the barbarian muslims who, from the seventh century to the present day, have chosen to wage 'holy' war of conversion of all of the world, and or die trying.
Today, these savages are wagering their 'holy' war in every part of the world; boasting to kill all who are not willing to convert.
The Bible tells us of Gods' command to smite those who would dare attempt to destroy His chosen. Today, the faithful who embrace His Sacred Dogma and Traditions are His Chosen
Take a hint.
Someone on another thread suggested that the Church should pray for the conversion of Muslims - formally, openly and publicly pray, that is - the way we used to pray for the conversion of Russia. I thought that was a great idea.
I'm still stunned by a municipal commeroration of 9/11 I attended here - where the Presbyterian minister closed his prayer "in the name of the God of Mohammed." I think there are a lot of people, well-meaning all, who simply don't get it. I guess they will someday, but their learning process isn't going to be pretty.
A lot of religious experts or whatever say Allah is God. I dont understand that myself. I think Islam is a heretical departure from Christianity by a man who was never a Christian, never baptized. He accepts the old testament prophets and John the Baptist and Jesus but he rejects the divinity of Jesus. He "reformed" Christianity to his own understanding and liking. All that crap about the angel Gabriel is either outright lies or self delusion or some kind of madness or the devil. I don't think we will ever know which but it is total unadulterated bunk.
Remember that Jesus Himself said that some demons could only be cast out by fasting. This is serious--- more serious than fighting here "flesh and blood."
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