Borders of faith and reason
[Benedict] claimed at Regensburg that to act contrary to reason is to act contrary to God, because God is reasonable. That's a central claim of Christian revelation, which understands the intelligibility of the universe to be participation in the intelligence that created it. The question Bened...
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Published in | Queen's quarterly Vol. 114; no. 1; pp. 68 - 71 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article Magazine Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Kingston
Queen's Quarterly
22.03.2007
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | [Benedict] claimed at Regensburg that to act contrary to reason is to act contrary to God, because God is reasonable. That's a central claim of Christian revelation, which understands the intelligibility of the universe to be participation in the intelligence that created it. The question Benedict raised was whether Islam conceived of God in the same way, or understood the divine majesty as something beyond all human categories, even that of reason itself. In the latter case, God could potentially command something contrary to reason itself, such as coercing intellectual faith through physical violence. The ensuing uproar mistook where Benedict was trying to draw the line. Some thought that the line was between reasonable Christianity, on the one hand, and unreasonable Islam on the other. A careful reading of the Regensburg address shows that the pope was drawing the line between unreasoning faith - whether Christian or Muslim - and reasoning faith. And another line between the crude materialists who inhabit a flattened world, devoid of spirit, and the older metaphysical wisdom that understood that reason itself poses questions which it cannot answer on its own. |
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Bibliography: | content type line 24 ObjectType-Feature-1 SourceType-Magazines-1 |
ISSN: | 0033-6041 |