Regensburg

Samuel Gregg writes today in NRO on the five-year anniversary of Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech about Catholic-Muslim relations:

Regensburg shattered the inconsequential niceties that had hitherto typified most Catholic-Muslim discussions. Instead of producing more happy-talk, Benedict indicated that such conversations could no longer avoid more substantial, more difficult questions: most notably, how Christianity and Islam understand God’s nature. Regensburg reminded us that it matters whether God is essentially Logos (Divine Reason) or Voluntas (Pure Will). The first understanding facilitates civilizational development, true freedom, and a complete understanding of reason. The second sows the seeds of decline, oppression, and unreason.

The whole thing deserves a read as, of course, does everything that comes from the pen of Joseph Ratzinger, His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.