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NYer, thank you so much for posting this.

This caught my eye:

"When Paleologos held his dialogue with his Persian counterpart, Islamic culture had just emerged from its happiest period, when Greek philosophy had been grafted onto the trunk of Qur’anic faith. In asking Islam today to rekindle the light of Aristotelian reason, Benedict XVI is not asking for the impossible. Islam has had its Averroes, the great Arab commentator on Aristotle who was treasured by such a giant of Catholic theology as was Thomas Aquinas.

"A return, today, to the synthesis between faith and reason is the only way for Islamic interpretation of the Qur’an to free itself from its fundamentalist paralysis and from obsession with “jihad.” And it is the only ground for authentic dialogue between the Muslim world and the Christianity of the West."

I'm beginning to see it. The "ground for authentic dialogue" would be, of course, the One True God (as you say, richardtavor, "the G_d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.") The True God is also called, in Christian Scriptures, written in the Greek language, "the Logos"-- the Word, which is to say, the Supreme Being and font of reason, Who cannot contradict Himself, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

So the one possible bridge, if there is one at all, would be God as Logos -- in the words of the greatest of Jewish prophets, Isaiah: "Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD."

So, is there a bridge? We'll soon see, won't we?

What a time to be living in. The Church, so long derided as an institution based on "blind faith," emerges as the voice for reason--- even, "faith in reason," fully implied by "faith in the Logos," the One.

(Come to think of it, it's parallel to the way Catholicism, upholder of virginity, turns out to be the worldwide defender of natural sex.) (I love it.)