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At his university lecture, Benedict, a leading theologian who has always drawn clear lines between Roman Catholicism and other faiths, also appeared to criticize Protestant churches and contemporary Third World theologians for not stressing the link between faith and reason clearly enough.

What does the Pope mean by the above? Protestant churches in any event cover the gamut.

"At his university lecture, Benedict, a leading theologian who has always drawn clear lines between Roman Catholicism and other faiths, also appeared to criticize Protestant churches and contemporary Third World theologians for not stressing the link between faith and reason clearly enough."

What does the Pope mean by the above? Protestant churches in any event cover the gamut.

I believe it's a reference to papal remarks covered on this thread, in which the Pope decries the dehellenization of reason and faith.

See my post #3 for an excerpt of his remarks, in which he discusses the Protestant Reformation specifically. I believe this is what your quote, above, is referring to.

"What does the Pope mean by the above? Protestant churches in any event cover the gamut."

Faith does not contradict reason. Faith is not blind. Having faith makes sense intellectually.

Conversion by the sword is not connected in any way with willing submission to God of heart AND mind. Conversion by the sword is not conversion to God at all. It is merely submitting to the human being who wields the sword. It is not reasonable to believe that God accepts this type of conversion as legitimate.

I think conversion by the sword is actually just an excuse for worldly conquest justified by a veneer of spiritual trappings. I think Mohammed was both cynical and delusional when he came up with Islam as a way to consolidate his power and conquer as many lands as he could.

From the pope's talk: 'But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God’s will, we would even have to practise idolatry. "

To a Muslim God does not have to act rationally. If God said, worship idols and not me, then unquestionably man would have to worship idols. If God said, convert people by threats of fear and death, you don't question that you just do it. Actually I don't think the Muslims know much about God at all. They are just terrified of him. And that is what Mohammed wanted in order to keep them in line.

"Benedict... also appeared to criticize Protestant churches and contemporary Third World theologians for not stressing the link between faith and reason clearly enough.."

"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.