The Regensburg Lecture [Hardcover]

James V. Schall (Author)

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The uproar over the supposedly anti-Islamic quotation in it occluded the meaning of Pope Benedict XVI's September 12, 2006, University of Regensburg lecture. Including its full text in an appendix, Schall expands upon its themes. Thirteenth-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus' "offensive" words concern the first, religiously motivated violence and the nature of God. The second theme is the loss of European Christian identity; the third, the "dehellenization" of the West. Benedict frames all three issues as matters of reason and religion. Crucial to his argument is the realization that, because of the Incarnation, Christianity doesn't conceive of God as dealing unreasonably with humanity, and as it is unreasonable to force religious belief, violence for religious ends is proscribed. Making the other themes urgent is the educational practice of reserving reason for secular disciplines only, which is why, Schall thinks, the pope made his remarks where and to whom he did. The university and professors can help reverse dehellenization by reconnecting reason and religion in teaching. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: St. Augustines Press; 1 edition (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587316951
• ISBN-13: 978-1587316951
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #67 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Catholicism > Popes

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47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wake Up Call for the World's Thinkers..., July 5, 2007

By 

Daniel C. Wilson "Defender of the Faith" (New Orleans, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Regensburg Lecture (Hardcover)

This book was my first introduction to Fr. Schall and I must say I was very impressed. This book is a great resource for those who have either read the Pope's Regensburg speech or have not read it yet, seeing as the first appendix contains the Pope's speech at Regensburg in its entirety.

Fr. Schall really unlocks the genius of the Pope's address and really gets to the reality of what the Pope was saying and at the same time shows the incredible neglect by the media in the recent past in it's treatment of what the Pope "said".

This book is a must and a challenge for anyone in higher education who thinks that the Roman Catholic Church and her teachings about reality, God, and man are outdated. Fr. Schall demonstrates with certain clarity that Pope Benedict XVI clearly understands the current cultural problems and makes them clear in this work, namely the abandonment of the objective rational world in religion and politics. Also given in this wonderful work is the foundational answer to getting our culture back on track in order to realize the true good for you and all peoples.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Primary Reference, April 19, 2008

By 

Billyjack D'Urberville (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Regensburg Lecture (Hardcover)

Hold all the instant biographies and analyses of Pope Benedict, however useful in whole or (mostly) part. Hold the plethora of books and writings by him (many scholarly, some indifferently translated). This is a primary reference on his fundamental thought in the context of what may remain his most important public statement. That statement regarding the dialogue between Christianity and Islam is appended here in a finally sound translation. And despite the relative speed with which Fr. Schall has released this commentary, it is a first rate job which thoroughly explicates the Regensburg address and will likely constitute an important source on it for a long time.

Benedict opened this talk in an academic setting with reference to a similar dialogue, between a Byzantine and a Muslim, centuries ago. It posed a question, and not an unfamiliar one, to the Muslim world from the Christian concerning religion and violence--not necessarily an answer. It moves quickly to an exploration of concepts of the Godhead and rationality, Muslim and Christian, which apparently only the pope, out of all the Western world, is these days willing to publicly address. That this talk was mis-translated and lambasted is perhaps a more astonishing and baleful sign of the times than that of certain Muslim militants who reacted violently in the days following the speech. Can the heirs of "the Enlightenment" any longer even tolerate the mere posing and exploration of large questions in an academic setting, supposedly one of the Enlightenment's most important institutions? The English speaking mass media (which Christians Catholic or non-Catholic should not mistake for the legitimate heir of anything) has answered no. Thus the Regensburg lecture has already, among other effects, oddly posed questions concerning societal order to the present West at least as pressing as they do to the Muslim world. That political correctness spells the end of liberty, in the classic American sense, has never been more dramatically demonstrated.

Fr. Schall quickly moves into a full exploration of all resonances of the Regensburg address, particularly as they relate to what is popularly called "terrorism" and its consequences for what remains of the Western political order. For the posing of the ancient question about an arbitrary diety, as opposed to a God self-limiting in His loving rationality, is double-edged. Fr. Schall brings in Benedict's concerns with the dissolution of European and Western culture generally, a de-hellenization which, undermining the church's embracing of classical era rational thought and natural law, leaves the West at present particularly vulnerable. This is finally seen to occur as much because of the West's own, mysterious inner breakdown as due to any outside threat.

This book is an indispensible guide which takes up Benedict's challenge at Regensburg--namely to articulate an ageed protocal at the highest levels of both Western culture and the Muslim world, so as walk both slowly backwards from an abyss.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At the core of today's greatest conflicts, January 7, 2009

By 

Nick Palmer (Needham, MA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Regensburg Lecture (Hardcover)

I, like many, had heard echos of the controversy over Pope Benedict's Regensburg lecture. From what little I could glean, the Pope was widely misunderstood and unfairly attacked. I had no idea, however, of the deep significance of this lecture.

Rev. Schall's book expertly cracks open the Pope's key themes, and frames them in relation to today's world -- both religious and secular. At the core -- the relationship of reason and faith -- lie the conflicts between both traditional religious and modern secular, and traditional religious and Islamic fanaticism. Has science advanced so far as to obviate the "need" for "god"? If so, what are the implications for an orderly, just society. On the other hand, is "god" wholly capricious with no connection to reason? And those implications?

After reading this book, I have begun to see a web of connections between this topic and many events, current and past. It is marvelously well written. It also includes the Regensburg Lecture itself, wisely at the back of the book. While reading the lecture I smiled to realize how little I would have understood it without Rev. Schall's explication. The book also helped me to realize the extraordinary beauty and power of the Pope's actual lecture.

This is a very important book about an extremely important lecture. I could not recommend it more highly.