Thursday, October 16, 2008

Has the pope been reading Islam and Christianity?

Well, my guess is no. But it gratifying that after I complained about the lack of frontier missions in the Catholic Church the good bishop of Rome made a somewhat similar point:

“Only the Word of God can change human hearts at the deepest level,” the pope said this morning.

In that connection, Benedict focused on the link between the Bible and the missionary impulse in Christianity. He distinguished three groups that should be the object of missionary efforts:

• Those who have never heard the gospel;
• Those who have weakened in the faith, and preserve only a superficial contact with the Word of God;
• Those who have become distant from the faith and therefore require a “new evangelization.”

Emphasizing the importance of the Bible, Benedict quoted a famous adage of St. Jerome: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

More broadly, Benedict urged that the synod develop new strategies to draw on the Bible to evangelize broad sectors of culture.


From HERE.

Incidentally, I also wrote a while back that it would be good to see a bishop publicaly announce his support for Muslims who desire to become Christians, and then a month or so later he baptized Magdi Allam. Strange...

8 comments:

Jeff said...

He's a good guy, Pope Benedict.

When he was elected, it was a dream come true for us lovers of Joseph Ratzinger, that gentle and brilliant Christian.

I came on this and it seemed like the sort of thing you might enjoy...an excerpt from poor Cardinal Danielou:

http://sognodargento.blogspot.com/2008/10/lord-of-history.html

JohnG. said...

I'm so honored to read regularly the blog of pope's spiritual father !!

More seriously, Abu, Have you ever read cardinal Journet series on the Church?

Abu Daoud said...

Hi Jeff, will check out the link. Thanks.

John G. I'm honored that you're honored. And no, I'm not familiar with the work you speak of, though post a link and I'll check it out.

Salam.

Steve Scott said...

Just between you and me, I have a friend that is an internet hacker and I put him up to it. Not only does the pope read your blog, the Vatican has a dedicated connection to your site. ;)

JohnG. said...

Hello Abu,

Here is two link leading to piece of Journet's work. He was a cardinal, french, theologian.
His writing are a little old now but still very interesting to me (but I'm no theologian, nor priest, nor pope's marabout)
Here are the links : http://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/CHWORDIN.HTM
and
http://www.ewtn.net/library/DOCTRINE/MNGGRACE.HTM

Have a great day.

I suggest : "Pontification was great; but abu Daoud is the greatest"

(remember Al's funny quotes when "pontification" was still running)

Abu Daoud said...

Steve: Ah yes, maybe you can get their servers to host Islam and Christianity? I like it: www.islamdom.va...

John G: Will check out the articles. I do remember Pontifications! I introduced a friend, Erik, to that blog back in Jan of 2006 and then he became Catholic. That was a very effective website!

JohnG. said...

Indeed Abu,

Father Ponti had a great site that taught me many insteresting things. It introduced me in many new theological developpements, he made me discover many good authors and mostly, he helped me to resolve many problems I would not have asked me if I had not read it ( ;-D )

chris said...

His book "Jesus of Nazareth" is very evengelical