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A professor pope wields some rhetorical jiu-jitsu
by John L Allen Jr on Sep. 27, 2009
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In the Japanese martial art of jiu-jitsu, the key to success is turning your opponent’s strength into a weakness. If your opponent is bigger or hits harder, you deflect his energy rather than directly opposing it, turning the blows back upon the guy delivering them.
In effect, Pope Benedict XVI has been practicing some rhetorical jiu-jitsu this weekend in the Czech Republic.
Time and again, the pontiff has taken charges that secularists commonly level at Christianity and turned them back around – so that they become indictments of, rather than an apologia for, a secular worldview.
The pope’s address this evening to a group of academics at Prague’s Charles University offered a classic case in point.
Secularists, for example, often accuse Christians of being dogmatists who are hostile to free, unfettered scientific thought. So, addressing an academic audience, Benedict XVI declared himself a former professor who remains “solicitous of the right to academic freedom.”
In fact, the pope argued, the very university in which the meeting took place was actually founded by the Catholic church, and was shaped by the “rich heritage of classical wisdom” which the church nurtured over long centuries.
Academic freedom, Benedict argued, lives up to this legacy only to the extent that it is in service to truth. Once intellectuals give up on the idea of truth, he warned, all that’s left is the naked will to power – and if you want a real hornet’s nest for academic freedom, there it is.
“Relativism … provides a dense camouflage behind which new threats to the autonomy of academic institutions can lurk,” the pope said, speaking in English as he has throughout his trip.
“Is it not the case that frequently, across the globe, the exercise of reason and academic research are – subtly and not so subtly – constrained to bow to the pressures of ideological interest groups and the lure of short-term utilitarian or pragmatic goals?” the pope asked.
“What will happen if our culture builds itself only on fashionable arguments, with little reference to a genuine historical intellectual tradition, or on the viewpoints that are most vociferously promoted and most heavily funded?”
"What will happen if in its anxiety to preserve a radical secularism, it detaches itself from its life-giving roots?"
Benedict didn’t bother providing direct replies to those rhetorical questions, but the implied answer to “what will happen?” seemed fairly obvious: nothing good.
In a similar vein, secularists often accuse Christians, and religious believers of all sorts, of being enemies of tolerance and dialogue because they purport to possess absolute truth. Benedict turned that blow around as well, suggesting that it’s actually secular relativism which is the true foe of dialogue.
“Not only do the proponents of this positivistic exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason negate what is one of the most profound convictions of religious believers,” the pope argued, “they also thwart the very dialogue of cultures which they themselves propose.”
“An understanding of reason that is deaf to the divine and which relegates religions into the realm of subcultures, is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures that our world so urgently needs,” he said.
Indeed, Benedict warned that a society under the sway of “radical relativism” will not be more reasonable or tolerant, but rather “more brittle and less inclusive” because they will struggle to recognize “what is true, noble and good.”
The pope’s bottom line amounted to this: You academics prize academic freedom, tolerance and dialogue, and so do I. If you want to defend those values, Christianity is a better bet than secularism. Christianity is able to integrate reason and faith, while “radical secularism” breeds relativism and nihilism.
The nature of tonight’s event didn’t allow for any immediate sense of how the academics in Benedict’s audience reacted to this bit of verbal jiu-jitsu. Nevertheless, the pope’s rhetorical tradecraft at least seemed to offer confirmation of a point made by Professor Václav Hampl, a physiologist and rector of Charles University, in his welcoming remarks.
“The power of your words and your judgment has always been praised,” Hampl said to the pontiff, “even by your opponents.”
Before his speech, Benedict XVI was treated to a performance of several classical numbers by a university vocal chorus. Obviously touched, the pontiff got up from his throne and went over afterwards to compliment the conductor.
John Allen's complete coverage of papal visit to Czech Republic
A great weekend for affirmative orthodoxy in Prague Monday, September 28, 2009
A day to honor 'Good King Wenceslas' Monday, September 28, 2009
UK trip, Newman beatification in 2010 a 'good hypothesis' Sunday, September 27, 2009
Trip to UK, beatification of Newman in 2010 a 'good hypothesis' Sunday, September 27, 2009
A professor pope wields some rhetorical jiu-jitsu Sunday, September 27, 2009
Benedict XVI confronts the ghost of Jan Hus Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Hapsburgs were smiling from Heaven today Sunday, September 27, 2009
Interview with Benedict XVI aboard the papal plane Sunday, September 27, 2009
Czechs object to authority, not religion, sociologist says Saturday, September 26, 2009
In Prague, Benedict XVI offers Erasmus for the 21st Century Saturday, September 26, 2009
Pope delivers upbeat message in ambivalent spot Saturday, September 26, 2009
Religion key to a 'healthy society,' pope tells secular Czechs Saturday, September 26, 2009
Czech believers find islands of hope in a secular sea Saturday, September 26, 2009
Church history through the eyes of a catacombs priest Friday, September 25, 2009
The German shepherd bids farewell to a 'wolf in winter' Friday, September 25, 2009
Mr. Allen reports: Benedict
Mr. Allen reports: Benedict XVI declared himself a former professor who remains “solicitous of the right to academic freedom.”
Well, this wil certainly be very good news to his old boss and mentor the Reverend Father Hans Kung and his use of question marks, to Father Phan (does Jesus in today's Gospel really mean it when He say that whoever is not against us is for us, and does this open the door to some sense of plurality?), to the Friars Boff, to the Reverend Father Tissa Balsuriya, to the Reverend Father Roger Haight, to the very Reverend and martyred Father Ignacio Ellacuria and companions, to Father DuPuis, to so many countless others, both known and unknown academics cowering over stifled thesis papers for fear of raising an exploration, and of course to our own very dear and Reverend Father Richard P. McBrien whom the right wing hounds of hell attack without any discernible sign of disfavor from the Vatican, more a victim of that anti-Catholic Lutheran periodical First Things than of any restriction of some supposedly solicited residual "right to academic Freedom."
but don't get me started
what do I know . . .
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
Father, the larger question
Father, the larger question which you avoid is a person free to teach anything they want and still call it Catholic thought? Is there a limit where something ceases to be Catholic? If the Church possesses the truth, then isn't there something else that is outside the Church that could be called falsity?
I think that you would agree to all of these things, so then the question next is whether Fr. McBrien, Hans Kun and others are teaching things that are not Catholic? While I don't have the time to go into all of their thoughts, I'd also have to say that it is not necessary to do so from my position as just a member of the Church. I'll leave that to the theologians. What is more certain is that these sectors of the Church - the people surrounding and following Fr. McBrien, Sr. Joan Chittister, Hans Kun - these sectors of the Church are not flourishing. These people may have a certain small following in universities, but I have yet to see a single human soul converted, cured, healed and saved by these dissenters. I'd argue that their influence has caused more people to leave the Church then to join her.
God is life, and where God is, there is life. These dissenters teach something arid, brittle and weak. In order for the truth to exist on earth, the Church has to weed out those whose error compromises that truth.
JustaReader, "These people
JustaReader,
"These people may have a certain small following in universities, but I have yet to see a single human soul converted, cured, healed and saved by these dissenters. I'd argue that their influence has caused more people to leave the Church then to join her."
I think you make a valid point in your statement that there may be people who read media accounts and controversial discouse and such of the writings of some of the theologians and used that as one of the excuses for not believing or leaving the Church. I think you might find reason to think that the same has happened throughout the Church's history to whatever extent the "public" was aware of such, and, in fact, many of the "great" theologians of the Church have also gone through public and ecclesiastical disdain, like Thomas Aquinas; now you would have to tear scholastic philosophy out of the dying hands of some believers before they would do anything other than hang their faith on it. You can also see now how "liberation theology" was quietly resurrected after the media tumult died down. You do say that you don't see it as your role to judge that and that you leave it to the Church hierarchy to decide...but then go on to pick out a few theologians and, I guess, try to claim they are all not in 'good standing' with the Church? You think you have the right to call them "dissenters" but who gave you that right? You do seem to be taking on a role of judgment that is not yours to take.
And where you are also wrong is to suggest that people aren't persuaded, comforted, engaged and healed by the freedom of theologians to think and write. That is simply false. Many people would run from churches to the extent they deny people the right to think, and run toward churches that are strong enough to welcome it.
So, I will introduce you to a 'single soul' who is engaged and active in the Church partly because of the ability and willingness of theologians and others to think freely and independently, which is one of the ways and reasons the thinking of the Church has developed and expanded. The idea that thinking is harmful to spirituality is false and suggests an issue in the development of one's spirituality. God gave us those interesting brains of ours as a part of who we are, and asked not that we cripple them in fear and anxiety--that was not his message. The Church without the forward-looking thinkers is never prepared for the present let alone the future. I don't think that any of these people you mention fail to understand the heavy weight of public or ecclesiastical disapproval, yet continue their work to the engagement of others. My guess is that you would like all these people out of the church from your final statement...for thinking.
Well, at least now you can't say you haven't met that single soul...
Make that two souls! I agree
Make that two souls! I agree with you, Annie. "Acknowledged ignorance and hopeful insecurity------two angels guarding your way.".........Thomas Merton
The People of God are always searching and trying to move forward, like pilgrims; not sitting there grasping their dogmas and yelling at others: "Heretics! Heretics!"
amen!
amen!
Dear Justa, Father? Is my dad
Dear Justa,
Father? Is my dad here? OMG!
Although you idly find you "don't have the time to go into all of their thoughts" you do find time to use such false allegations as "dissenters" etc.
Kindly provide your source material among any Vatican documents darkening the great career of the Reverend Father Richard P. McBrien. Does he not infact now operate as a senior and most respected teacher of Roman Catholic theology and author and editor of the standard Roman Catholic reference works, inclduing the Encyclopedia, and is based securely at our leading Roman Catholic institute of higher learning? How then do you so idly cast such stone?
I request the same for our dearly beloved and reverend Sister Chittister OSB, who indeed has consoled and enlightened through her brilliant and holy writings (never arid, never brittle, never weak) many a lost and dismayed soul, in particular my own broken and humbled heart, whom she permits to remain ever closer to Our great Mother the ROman Catholic Church, in deeper love, and not cast outside into the dark with the groaning and grindng of teeth, as so many of the unholy upon the far wing do, including Archbishop Burke.
Love thy enemy.
Do not weed us, your nearest neighbors, whom you must love as yourself, to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
just wondering
your least little brother
frère charles du désert
The thing is, I'm not so sure
The thing is, I'm not so sure that “radical relativism” is that defined or that definable. It is a broad pair of words without concrete content that can stand for many meanings.
Academic freedom, tolerance
Academic freedom, tolerance and dialogue are NOT allowed by this pope Benedict XVI. The "naked will to power is all that is left" as this pope silences theologians and clergy and the religious with whom he disagrees and suppresses. All to fiercely suppress any change, any dialogue, any corrections of errors in his policies and procedures "his naked will to power" and status quo.
The pope is being blatantly hypocritical in this speech to the academics of the Czech people. I hope they are not misled by this "rhetorical jiu-jitsu" of his.
What a refreshing article. I
What a refreshing article. I saw this on the cnn ticker.
He just delivered a spiritual smackdown.
Dear Turtles all day (and at
Dear Turtles all day (and at night? What? Alligators under the bed?),
Are smackdowns spiritual, as you say?
Where then is "turn the other cheek?"
Love thy enemy, in a way the enemy might perceive it as love . . .
Where's the Love?
"The pope’s bottom line
"The pope’s bottom line amounted to this: You academics prize academic freedom, tolerance and dialogue, and so do I. If you want to defend those values, Christianity is a better bet than secularism. Christianity is able to integrate reason and faith, while “radical secularism” breeds relativism and nihilism."
The Pope prizes academic freedom as long as it is based on Christianity...hmmmm....wow, yeah, there's a smackdown for you. Am I missing something?
Might one dare to say it -
Might one dare to say it - what hyprcricy? "Benedict declared himself a former professor who remains 'solicitous of the right to academic freedom'". Tell that to Fr. Hans Kung,SJ;Fr. Robert Currin:Fr Edward Schillerbeeckx; Bishop Raymond Hunthausenl; Gustavo Gutierrez; Fr. Anthony de Mello, SJ; Fr. Roger Haight, SJ; Fr. Leonado Boff; Fr. Jon Sobrino;Matthew Fox, etc., etc., etc. Not to mention the many, many others who were dismissed as a consequence of our Benedict XVI.
Does he really think that those academics who attended and the Catholic world in general doesn't listen at least a bit? For me, he makes a mockery of "...the rich heritage of classical wisdom" to which he refers and of which he is supposedly a product.
Yes, dennis, and let us read
Yes, dennis, and let us read together once again both Faithful Dissent and Loyal Dissent from the Reverend Father Charles Curran.
What have you heard of the Reverend Father Gustavo Gutierrez, the foundation upon which the great Medellin and Puebla meetings of CELAM were founded? I am familiar with no received "smackdown."
I wonder whether in the sacred chapel of Solentiname, the Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal, once novice and poet under Father Louis, Trappist Thomas Merton, faced ad orientem . . .
What universe do you folks
What universe do you folks live in, accusing the Pope of being repressive, conservative and intolerant? Firstly, it is very apparent that it is "theological progressives" and dissenters who hold more sway. It is these soft voices that waft from the pulpit. Mahony is still an archbishop the last time I checked. The number of times the Holy Father has publicly celebrated Mass ad orientem can be counted on one hand. ZERO politicians have been excommunicated as a consequence of their views. So, what's the problem? A few disciplined theologians. Well, they are free to say whatever they want. Just don't call it Catholic, if it isn't. A basic honesty isn't too much to ask. And in any case, how much tolerance did Fr. Jenkins show/is showing to the pro-life protesters? And I shan't expect any "tolerance" if the likes of Fr. McBrien has greater power. We'd all probably be banned from attending Eucharistic Adoration seeing how he sees as it spiritually unhelpful. "Tolerance" really depends on what is considered tolerable, isn't it?
I hear a lot of wailing and
I hear a lot of wailing and nashing of teeth in the replies but all those who have been "silenced" by the Church are free to speak outside the Church. If you believe that the Church is truly guided by the Holy Spirit and you wish to teach in the name of the Church (ie Catholic Priest or theologian) than you must submit to the authority of the Church. If not, there are many other communions you can join. I for one thank God we have a Pope who will stand for the truth.
Actually, baptism is still
Actually, baptism is still baptism, even in the "new" world of the neo-trads. The Church can keep people from teaching in its facilities to some extent, but that doesn't mean that any of these people have to leave Church at all. Just like Jesus said...
Bravo to Frere Charles (and
Bravo to Frere Charles (and he is mon frere).History shows that the attempt to ban dissent in the church is counterproductive. Look at Luther,Calvin et al.
I submit that the way to combat ideas is with better ideas. If Rome has a better idea than a questioning theologian,let there be a debate,rather than a ban on the idea and its proponent.Remember also the words of Gameliel in Acts 5,38-39.
Finally,the words of Hubert Humphrey " (t)he difference between heresy and prophecy is often one of sequence; heresy often turns out to have been prophecy when properly aged".
Bless you, mon frere ou bien
Bless you, mon frere ou bien ma soeur, who puts these tears into my old eyes, and, if you permit me, may I quote Gogo to Didi, "Stand, while I embrace you!"
ever your least
frere charles du desert
"I will determine what TRUTH
"I will determine what TRUTH is!" That seems to be the motto of Benedict XVI. When one is laboring under the notion that he is God, this is the result: all who disagree must be silenced.
"Obviously touched, the pontiff got up from his throne and went over afterwards to compliment the conductor." Does this in any way imitate Jesus? How can anyone conduct and comport himself in such a contradictory fashion to Jesus ["I am the way, the truth......."], and then wonder why the believers don't listen to him. Beware of false teachers!
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