Religion

Symposium on the Pope’s Regensberg Speech at U of C on 11.01.06

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I received the following today:

The Lumen Christi Institute presents a symposium at the University of Chicago on Benedict XVI on “Faith, Reason and the University”: The Regensburg Address in Context, with remarks by Hans Joas, University of Chicago, Michael Kremer, University of Chicago, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Northwestern University, Paul Griffiths, University of Illinois, Chicago. Wed., Nov. 1, 2006, 4:00-6:00 PM, Room 101, Hinds Lab. for Geophysical Sciences, 5734 South Ellis Avenue. For more information and the revised text of the Pope’s address (with footnotes), see the notice at www.lumenchristi.org.

We have had some discussion of this speech and its meaning and impact on the blog. If you are able to get to Hyde Park for this symposium, I am sure that it will be good, as all Lumen Christi events always are.

Incidentally, I think the best thing I have seen about the speech was this piece by Lee Harris.

Quote of the Day

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[The] determination to build Jerusalem, at once and on the spot, is the very force which is responsible for the intolerance and violence of the new political order � if we believe that the Kingdom of Heaven can be established by political or economic measures � that it can be an earthly state � then we can hardly object to the claims of such a State to embrace the whole of life and to demand the total submission of the individual � there is a fundamental error in all this. That error is the ignoring of Original Sin and its consequences or rather identification of the Fall with some defective political or economic arrangement. If we could destroy the Capitalist system or the power of bankers or that of the Jews, everything in the garden would be lovely.

Christopher Dawson (and here), Religion and the Modern State (1935), quoted in Michael Burleigh, Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe, from the French Revolution to the Great War. (As of p. 152, the Burleigh book is excellent.)

Faith Based Initiative 1 Civilization 0

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The damage is done. Ratzinger makes a comment contrary to where the Church stood before and then apologizes. Vatican could perhaps get distressed and spin it in any way it can to save face but the cost will be measured in American lives.

For my religious friends here are some inconvenient facts:

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Perhaps the Mystery Isn’t All That Great

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Some may wonder how a church can move from 4.2 million in 1967 to 2.3 in 2005, despite the fact that Christian churches in general have been growing more rapidly than the population. The answer might be found in the publisher of this Amazon entry and the publisher’s explanation. (It is extolled here and reviewed here.)

Some might think humility would be one of the key characteristics of the Christian; if so, this approach would seem more appropriate. And so would sympathy for those who risk their lives daily choosing to become policemen in Iraq. They hope to further the rule of law – one Christians have long understood as necessary for an earthly life of peace. This church offers little succor.

(And we aren’t even getting into what can be interpreted as anti-semitism in the bizarre policy of “punishing” Caterpillar.)

The statistics are from the July Layman, which is a pdf; it is reached through the Layman Online.

Evangelicals and U.S. Foreign Policy

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I read this paper by Walter Russell Mead in Foreign Affairs last week. It is a typically excellent Mead product.

I think the main thing Mead is trying to accomplish with this article is to show unreligious people who are part of the Northeastern establishment that (1) there is a lot more to the so-called “religious right” than their stereotypes can capture, (2) that the impact of the evangelical community is going to continue to be major, and growing influence on US foreign policy, and (3) that the policies that this community is going to advocate in the future, again, may differ from the stereotypes which the non-religious establishment has of evangelicals. Basically, American evangelicalism is a vast and influential and active world unto itself that most people who are interested in or participate in public policy know nothing about. One friend commented that Mead is being more than fair to these folks. I think he is appropriately fair. But Mead�s goal is not to criticize this community, but to try to explain them to an uncomprehending and hostile audience.

RTWT.