BY MARIA MACIA and JULIAN MOORE

In print | October 5, 2006

Some have regarded Pope Benedict XVI’s address at the University of Regensburg as merely the latest chapter (read: blunder) in Christian relations with the Muslim community. These folks read Benedict to mean that it was the failure of Muslims to engage in rational dialogue that has stalled efforts at peaceful coexistence between two of the world’s largest communities of faith.

But the insight of Benedict (call sign “Joey Rat”) was much deeper than this. His comments are particularly directed to two related but different questions in the world today: first, the status of Christians in majority-Muslim nations, and second, the status of Muslims in the West (particularly Europe).

Accordingly, Benedict’s challenge has a dual nature. To Muslims in places such as Saudi Arabia (where it is illegal to possess a bible) he is saying: One’s faith is of the utmost importance (having to do, as it does, with eternal salvation and such). You understand this! Now how about a respectful attitude towards practicing Christians! History is filled with examples of religiously motivated violence and forced conversions. But Benedict is asking us to break with certain patterns of the past and, out of our different belief systems, come to one common value: respect for religious freedom. At the national policy level most Western countries have made this step, and it would make a lot of sense for devout Muslim nations to reciprocate.

Now what is the pope’s challenge to the West (erstwhile Christendom)? Note: the terms “the West” and “Christianity” do not refer to the same thing. Many Westerners and certainly most Western elites are not only secular, the strict definition of which simply implies the separation of church and state, but they are committed to pure reason and, nowadays, to a postmodern liberalism whose “expressive individualism” assumes a zero-sum relationship between faith and reason.

Indeed, in the West, if faith is useful at all, it is useful to explain merely that which cannot (yet) be explained by reason. The reason of the West, Benedict points out, is “a reason … deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures.”�Such reason is “incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures.”�Our society’s conception of the relationship between faith and reason is not sophisticated enough to serve as a basis for mutual understanding, mutual respect and a commitment to peaceful coexistence. Perhaps precisely because much of the West has abandoned Christianity, it is no longer familiar with the alternatives. One of the most compelling of these is the Catholic understanding of the relationship between faith and reason, in which reason is one of the three pillars of faith itself, along with scripture and tradition.

Benedict’s challenge to Muslim nations is: You understand the importance of faith as regards this world and the next; will you respect our faith? His challenge to the West is: A reason hostile to faith is a dangerous one, in a worldly and otherworldly sense. A reconciliation of faith and reason will lead not to the reconciliation of the Christian and Muslim faiths (that is, common belief) but to a mutual commitment to living in peace (a common value).

This pope, then, is tackling a different and more difficult problem than his predecessor, John Paul II. John Paul chose to emphasize interfaith dialogue and the things people of various faiths had in common. In a subtle shift, Benedict has chosen to tackle the divide between people of the same (Western) civilization, for one group of whom faith in reason dominates, and the other, for whom faith in God is also important.

Benedict’s subtle and brilliant message here addresses the pitfalls of the postmodern reason: The general hostility of reason to faith (Christian faith above all) will undermine attempts at peaceful coexistence with Muslims — and therefore threaten the existence of the West itself.

How to solve this problem? The West must adopt a heavier version of reason: “It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.” Perhaps you read the word “partners” above to mean Muslims. For whom would it be a problem to restore the study of faith and reason together (theology) to its primary position among university sciences? Muslims? Think again.

Maria and Julian are seniors. You can reach them at mmacia1@swarthmore.edu and jmoore1@swarthmore.edu.

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