Through Force or Faith? — Page 80
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 80 V Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God’s nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the pro- found harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Commenting on the aforementioned dialogue, the Pope said that it is a brusque statement and that this dialogue was recorded by Manuel himself in A. D. 1391 and for this reason, Manuel’s own arguments are more elaborate than the arguments of the Persian scholar. Regardless, the Pope did not admit anywhere in his entire speech that he considers the objections of Manuel to be errone- ous. After the lecture, Muslims all over the world and some fair- minded non-Muslim scholars protested. Upon this, the Pope issued statements to the effect that he was sorry that his lecture was misunderstood and that his only objective, by referring to this dialogue, was to encourage further dialogue between religions. Even then, he did not admit in any statement that the criticism of Manuel was wrong. A reasonable way to promote the inter-religious dialogue would have been to highlight the values that are shared by reli- gions so that the discussion would start from a common ground. Instead, while speaking on faith and reason, a highly imprudent way was adopted. It is poignant to note why the Pope, who is known as a scholar and was a professor at a university, presented such an objectionable excerpt in the first place?