Pope Benedikt challenged both Muslims and secularists in address to the faculties at Regensburg on "Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections." The initial reaction from the Islamic world seemed negative and violent. A more reflective response came from a group of thirty eight moslem thought leaders from a variety of countries and including some very prominent names. As Sandro Magister puts it: "A Sprig of Dialogue Has Sprouted in Regensburg." Should a hymn of that tittle be set to Palistrina?
Are Liberals Intolerant?
I have often felt that liberals are not very liberal. That is too much of a generalization, true. But whether we are talking of Catholics who characterize themselves as "liberal' or "progressive," or we are speaking of liberals in the sense of those on the left side of the American political spectrum, far too many get rapidly wroth at the very mention of opposing views or the opponents who might hold them.
Two weeks ago I was graced with meeting some marvelous young theology faculty of orthodox inclinations who teach at Catholic institutions. They were in dread that they might be forced out of their intellectual closets. They perceived the consequences for tenure, promotion, and feeding their families to be dire. Those who control the commanding heights of academe "in the Catholic tradition," define diversity in purely demographic terms.
In the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, Peggy Noonan observes that those on the political left "don't always recognize themselves to be bullying. So full of their righteousness are they that they have lost the ability to judge themselves and their manner." She notes"What is most missing from the left in America is an element of grace -- of civic grace, democratic grace, the kind that assumes disagreements are part of the fabric, but we can make the fabric hold together."
Noonan goes on to say "all this continues to come more from the left than the right in America." I believe that such behavior results from the triumph of ideology over our common humanity. Perhaps the left is more susceptible to the virus of ideology, but neither seems inoculated against it.
Certainly, the right too can fall under the Siren's spell. The only true prophylactic against her song is grace and the truth that St. Martin learned on that bitter cold night in Gaul: how we treat each other is how we treat Christ. Ideological man lets his model of the world blind himself to God's grace in the form of his fellow man. He is no longer restrained by the existential reality of the man or woman in front of him. He then ceases acting with that grace of civility due a fellow creature made in the divine image.
Ultimately, the civil order itself rests on "things unseen."
Two weeks ago I was graced with meeting some marvelous young theology faculty of orthodox inclinations who teach at Catholic institutions. They were in dread that they might be forced out of their intellectual closets. They perceived the consequences for tenure, promotion, and feeding their families to be dire. Those who control the commanding heights of academe "in the Catholic tradition," define diversity in purely demographic terms.
In the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, Peggy Noonan observes that those on the political left "don't always recognize themselves to be bullying. So full of their righteousness are they that they have lost the ability to judge themselves and their manner." She notes"What is most missing from the left in America is an element of grace -- of civic grace, democratic grace, the kind that assumes disagreements are part of the fabric, but we can make the fabric hold together."
Noonan goes on to say "all this continues to come more from the left than the right in America." I believe that such behavior results from the triumph of ideology over our common humanity. Perhaps the left is more susceptible to the virus of ideology, but neither seems inoculated against it.
Certainly, the right too can fall under the Siren's spell. The only true prophylactic against her song is grace and the truth that St. Martin learned on that bitter cold night in Gaul: how we treat each other is how we treat Christ. Ideological man lets his model of the world blind himself to God's grace in the form of his fellow man. He is no longer restrained by the existential reality of the man or woman in front of him. He then ceases acting with that grace of civility due a fellow creature made in the divine image.
Ultimately, the civil order itself rests on "things unseen."
Peggy Noonan on Bob Woodward's new book
Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's chief wordsmith reviewed Bob Woodward's new book, State of Denial in the Wall Street Journal. She writes, "This is a primer on how the executive branch of the United States works, or rather doesn't work, in the early years of the 21st century."
Particularly interesting is her insight into the attitude of key administration folks toward the State Department: "The young Reagan guys at the table grew up to be the heavyweights of the Bush era." When Reagan took on the Evil Empire, it was always the State Department that fought him and turned out wrong. I grew up reading National Review. I thought Bill Buckley made up "Foggy Bottom" as a derogatory nickname for the State Department. Little did I dream there was an actual piece of our national capital's geography with that name. The possiblity that the State Department might be right for once never occured to those "young Reagan guys!!"
Particularly interesting is her insight into the attitude of key administration folks toward the State Department: "The young Reagan guys at the table grew up to be the heavyweights of the Bush era." When Reagan took on the Evil Empire, it was always the State Department that fought him and turned out wrong. I grew up reading National Review. I thought Bill Buckley made up "Foggy Bottom" as a derogatory nickname for the State Department. Little did I dream there was an actual piece of our national capital's geography with that name. The possiblity that the State Department might be right for once never occured to those "young Reagan guys!!"
The Word from KC: "Misappropriations of... the Council"
Whispers in the Logia noted Bishop Finn's homily to the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Is Reasonablesness Fundamental to the Faith?
Pope Benedikt's address at University of Regensburg, Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections, has created a firestorm of protest. Perhaps a Financial Times headline caught it best: "Dry speech that snowballed around the world."
In his lecture to his old colleagues, the pope quoted a dialogue between a fourteenth century Byzantine emperor (Manuel II "Palaeologus" or "Ancient Reason") and a Persian Moslem scholar. Palaeologus's six hundred year old words offended some Moslems. Their extreme, even violent, reaction is tragically ironic.
Benedikt's speech is both a plea for reasonableness and a warning to the West against its exclusion of religion from public dialogue. The pope told the university faculty: "In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions.
"A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realms of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."
Benedikt quotes Manuel II Palaeologos as an occasion for citing his ancient argument that "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. 'God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably ("syn logo") is contrary to God's nature.' "
The extremists who burned churches and who martyred Sister Leonella (Rosa Sgorbati) seem intent on confirming Manuel II's accusations. They reject the pope's call for a dialogue between cultures based on the inherent dignity of man and his fundamental right to life. Perhaps must offensive to these blood lusting fanatics is the pope's own fundamentalism: the proposition that "reason" or "reasonableness" (the German word is "Vernunft") is fundamental to faith because "Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature."
To link to the original text in German, click on the title of this post.
In his lecture to his old colleagues, the pope quoted a dialogue between a fourteenth century Byzantine emperor (Manuel II "Palaeologus" or "Ancient Reason") and a Persian Moslem scholar. Palaeologus's six hundred year old words offended some Moslems. Their extreme, even violent, reaction is tragically ironic.
Benedikt's speech is both a plea for reasonableness and a warning to the West against its exclusion of religion from public dialogue. The pope told the university faculty: "In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions.
"A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realms of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."
Benedikt quotes Manuel II Palaeologos as an occasion for citing his ancient argument that "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. 'God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably ("syn logo") is contrary to God's nature.' "
The extremists who burned churches and who martyred Sister Leonella (Rosa Sgorbati) seem intent on confirming Manuel II's accusations. They reject the pope's call for a dialogue between cultures based on the inherent dignity of man and his fundamental right to life. Perhaps must offensive to these blood lusting fanatics is the pope's own fundamentalism: the proposition that "reason" or "reasonableness" (the German word is "Vernunft") is fundamental to faith because "Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature."
To link to the original text in German, click on the title of this post.
