Glenn English: “It is a sobering sign of the times, in my view, that a papal speech that was meant to address the harmony between faith…”

“It is a sobering sign of the times, in my view, that a papal speech that was meant to address the harmony between faith and reason and deplore the idea of religious violence is contradictory to the nature of God would inspire demonstrations and violence in a large cross-section of the Islamic world. The angry reaction of some Muslim leaders and politicians to the September 12 academic lecture by Pope Benedict XVI in Germany has disturbed Catholics and non-Catholics alike and raised many questions about the possibilities of honest dialogue between Islam and the non-Islamic world, particularly in a world of 15 second sound bites. The Holy Father's lecture was not intended obviously to be a critique, let alone a criticism, of Islam. It was instead a very esoteric discussion of three different views on the nature of knowledge, particularly the knowledge of God. The pope used a quote by the late Byzantine emperor, not a Catholic, Manuel II Paleologus, regarding Islamic teachings on holy war and the command to spread the faith by the sword, as a starting point of his discussion.”