The Pontiff Has a Point

ONE OF THE SIGNATURE BUZZWORDS OF JOHN PAUL II'S papacy was "dialogue." So committed was he to seeking common ground with leaders of different faiths that he all but institutionalized the process in 1986 by hosting the first of a series of interreligious gatherings in the medieval Italian town of Assisi. It was well known in Vatican circles that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, among the Pope's most loyal lieutenants, was lukewarm to the Assisi enthusiasm. The German Cardinal was, after all, among the world's most rigorous (and traditionalist) Catholic theologians, skeptical of any attempt to water down differences among faiths. Still, when that same theologian became Pope Benedict XVI, he understood that the hard-won lines of communication with the world's other faiths must stay open. This theologian in chief for a billion Catholics should not shy away from serious theology. Benedict's razor-sharp intellect is the best skill he has to offer his church-and potentially the world as well. When he turned that brainpower toward the realm of interreligious relations in last week's speech, Benedict shifted the terms of a debate that has been dominated by either feel-good truisms, victimization complexes or hateful confrontation. He sought instead to delineate what he sees as a fundamental difference between Christianity's view that God is intrinsically linked to reason (the Greek concept of Logos) and Islam's view that "God is absolutely transcendent."