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Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam > Blaise Pascal Instituut > Girard Studiekring > COV&R 2007 > Abstracts Papers
Kornél Zathureczky
Christianity, Islam and reason: Pope Benedict XVI and Tariq Ramadan
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ABSTRACT
A recent speech of Pope Benedict XVI in Regensburg elicited a flurry of violent protests among many Muslims throughout the world. Benedict appealed to the Greek philosophical heritage of Christianity which the latter appropriated through the theology of the Logos, locating Christianitys essentially non-violent disposition within this doctrine. While Benedict advocates the necessity of a mutual relationship between faith and reason, he also implies that this relationship between the two is an exclusive achievement of Christian theology in Europe. In the spirit of theological dialogue, mistakenly perceived as disdain for the prophet Muhammad, the Pope questions whether Islams perceived connection to violence may not be attributed to a deflated role of reason in Islamic theology. He insinuates that this lack may be the biggest obstacle to accepting the presence of Islam in Europe.
We look at a response to the Regensburg
speech, offered by Tariq Ramadan, most well-known for his work in construing an
idea of specifically European Islam, as a significant achievement of theological
dialogue, one that not only engages the real substance of the Popes speech
but also challenges its theological presuppositions.
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Kornél Zathureczky, Postdoctoral research Fellow Université de Montréal Chair of Islam, Pluralism, and Globalisation 1556 Boulevard St-Joseph Est Montréal, Québec H2J 1M7 514-232-4666