<\/p>\nPope Benedict XVI has said that \u201cinterreligious dialogue, in the strict sense of the term, is not possible\u201d – a statement which, at face value, would seem to undercut 50 years of official dialogues with other faiths sponsored by the Catholic church, not to mention the theological vision of Nostrae Aetate, the document of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) on relations with non-Christian religions.<\/p>\n
Among other things, the Vatican actually has its own Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, whose personnel may be surprised to learn that their work, according to the boss, is a logical non-starter. … …<\/p>\n
For the record, Benedict\u2019s line came as part of a brief letter to an old friend, Italian senator and philosopher Marcello Pera, which serves as the introduction to Pera\u2019s new book, Why We Must Call Ourselves Christians. It went on sale Tuesday from the Italian publisher Mondadori. (In 2004, Pera and then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger coauthored a book about Europe titled Without Roots; Pera is perhaps the leading example of a peculiar phenomenon on the cultural right in today\u2019s Europe, a self-professed atheist who nevertheless supports a revival of the Christian identity of the Old Continent on the grounds that it\u2019s the only way to defend Europe\u2019s humanistic values.)<\/p>\n
Benedict is committed to the relationship; that was the spirit of his November 2006 trip to Turkey, and it was also obvious from his remarks on Nov. 6 to the new \u201cCatholic\/Muslim Forum,\u201d a vehicle for dialogue launched in the wake of Islamic reaction to the pope\u2019s September 2006 lecture at the University of Regensburg.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 6, Benedict expressed hope that \u201cthe reflections and positive developments which emerge from Muslim-Christian dialogue are not limited to a small group of experts and scholars, but are passed on as a precious legacy to be placed at the service of all, to bear fruit in the way we live each day.\u201d These are clearly not the sentiments of a pope who wants to shut down inter-faith exchange.<\/p>\n
Yet Benedict does not understand the relationship with Islam in terms of theological exploration: how the Qur\u2019an, for example, might inform new approaches to Christology. Rather, he\u2019s focused on more practical questions, above all what the Vatican calls \u201creciprocity.\u201d The question is, if Islamic immigrants in the West can claim the protection of the rule of law and of religious freedom, shouldn\u2019t religious minorities in majority Islamic states get the same deal? The equal-and-opposite form of that question in the West, especially Europe, is how Western societies can express respect for religious diversity without cutting themselves off from their Christian roots.<\/p>\n
More broadly, Benedict wants to emphasize how the world\u2019s religions can collaborate in defense of common values, beginning with a robust public role for religious believers and extending into efforts on behalf of greater peace and justice. On that score, Benedict believes in a two-way exchange; that was the point of his reference to \u201cmutual correction and enrichment\u201d in his letter to Pera. … …<\/p>\n
At least to some European ears, the phrase \u201cinterreligious dialogue\u201d thus implies throwing in the towel on Europe\u2019s Christian roots. Benedict XVI shares an aversion to that prospect with Pera — who, in his new book, argues that Western liberalism shorn of its basis in Christian values inevitably collapses under its own weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe choice for Christianity,\u201d Pera writes, \u201chas produced the best results. That choice has great advantages, also in the arena of public ethics. It doesn\u2019t separate morality from truth, it doesn\u2019t confuse moral autonomy with free individual choice, it doesn\u2019t treat individuals — born or unborn — as things, it doesn\u2019t transform every desire into a right, and it doesn\u2019t confine reason to the limits of science.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the defense of that set of transcendent values Benedict had in mind by calling interreligious dialogue \u201cimpossible\u201d in the strict sense.<\/p>\n
Of course, a pope is supposed to be a universal pastor, not a European cultural critic, and one might legitimately wonder if the rest of the world ought to be expected to automatically situate his declarations in the context of European cultural debate. <\/font><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Den italienske filosofen (og ateisten) Marcello Pera har skrevet ei bok som heter «Vi m\u00e5 kalle oss kristne», der pave Benedikt har skrevet et kort forord, som bl.a. inneholder setningen «Virkelig dialog mellom ulike religioner er ikke mulig.» Dette skriver John Allen om i dag, og slik oversetter han pavens forord til engelsk: «You explain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-okumenikk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4711,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3759\/revisions\/4711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}