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January 12, 2006
Pope Benedict On Islam And Christianity
A few days ago RDS at The Ten O'Clock Scholar highlighted a fascinating and important interview Hugh Hewitt conducted with Father Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University and friend of pope Benedict XVI.
Speaking about the challenges the Christian west faces from the growth of Islam, Fr. Fessio made drew a conclusion that hadn't occurred to me before: Both the US and western Europe are faced with declining birthrates. In Europe the problem is so bad that immigration is necessary in order to maintain the workforce of these industrialized countries. The difference noted by Fr. Fessio is that European immigrants are by and large Muslim, and since cultural coexistence is antithetical to the teachings of the Koran as the immigrant populations grow the pressure on western culture grows accordingly. Islam will not change because the Koran is immutable; either the immigrants themselves are made to leave (unlikely given the economic necessities) or the traditional western culture of the host countries will resolve the conflict by becoming more amenable to Islam. And since the principles of Islam and Enlightenment-based western culture are incompatible, it's the latter that will disappear. In the US however, our main source of immigration (legal and illegal) is Mexico and Central America--obviously predominately Christian countries.
I had never considered this. Even though there are plenty of cultural differences between US natives and our immigrants, the differences pale in comparison to those in Europe. The point hinges on a comparison between the teachings of the Bible and those of the Koran, as noted incisively by Pope Benedict:
HH: Father Fessio, before the break, you were telling us that after the presentation at Castel Gandolfo by two scholars of Islam this summer with Benedict in attendance, as well as his former students, for the first time in your memory, the Pope did not allow his students to first comment and reserve comment, but in fact, went first. Why, and what did he say?
JF: Well, the thesis that was proposed by this [Islamic modernist] scholar was that Islam can enter into the modern world if the Koran is reinterpreted by taking the specific legislation, and going back to the principles, and then adapting it to our times, especially with the dignity that we ascribe to women, which has come through Christianity, of course. And immediately, the Holy Father, in his beautiful calm but clear way, said well, there's a fundamental problem with that, because he said in the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Mohammed, but it's an eternal word. It's not Mohammed's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it, whereas in Christianity, and Judaism, the dynamism's completely different, that God has worked through His creatures. And so, it is not just the word of God, it's the word of Isaiah, not just the word of God, but the word of Mark. He's used His human creatures, and inspired them to speak His word to the world, and therefore by establishing a Church in which he gives authority to His followers to carry on the tradition and interpret it, there's an inner logic to the Christian Bible, which permits it and requires it to be adapted and applied to new situations. [...H]is seeing that distinction when the Koran, which is seen as something dropped out of Heaven, which cannot be adapted or applied, even, and the Bible, which is a word of God that comes through a human community, it was stunning.
Now, I'm not a theologian, but this appears to be a particularly Catholic interpretation of the Bible; there are of course heated debates continually raging (mainly among Protestants) about how the Bible should be interpreted. Indeed some fundamentalist Protestant interpretations seem to hew more to the Islamic idea of an unchangeable scripture delivered by God.
But at least the debate is happening in Christianity, and I'd bet that a majority of Christians believe that Scripture is adaptable to some degree. (Indeed, even the most dedicated Bible-literalist would probably have trouble following some of the Old Testament teachings.)
As RDS noted in his post, Fr. Fessio tells Hugh that the Pope is pessimistic about Islam adapting to the modern world, the world created by the ideas of the European Enlightenment:
JF: Yeah, [the idea] that Christianity can engage modernity just like it did...the Jews did Egypt, or Christians did to Greece, because we can take what's good there, and we can elevate it through the revelation of Christ in the Bible. But Islam is stuck. It's stuck with a text that cannot be adapted, or even be interpreted properly.HH: And so the Pope is a pessimist about that changing, because it would require a radical reinterpretation of what the Koran is?
JF: Yeah, which is it's impossible, because it's against the very nature of the Koran, as it's understood by Muslims.
HH: And so, even the dialectic that was the Reformation is not possible within Islam?
JF: No.
Father Fessio thinks that America might become the last bastion of Christianity and western civilization--a culture that celebrates the supreme rights of the individual; the ascendancy of reason, freedom and tolerance; and a religion that allows for forgiveness.
In light of the events (the riots in France) and attitudes (indifference to the mortal threat of a nuclear Iran) seen recently in western Europe, he may well be right.
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