교황께선 강연에서 쎄오돌 코리(Theodore Khoury)란 사람의 책에 나오는 14세기 비잔틴 황제인 마누엘 팔레올로고스와 페르시아 지식인 간에 기독교와 이슬람의 진리를 놓고 나눈 대화 내용 중 황제가 회교 지식인에게 말한  “회교 전파를 위해 칼을 사용할 수 있다는 코란에 나와있는 구절은  잘못됐다. 사악하고 비인간적인 가르침이다”를 인용, 종교 전파에 있어 폭력을 사용해서는 안됨을, 더 나아가 기독교의 하느님은 폭력의 하느님이 아님을 강조하셨었다. (황제는 그 회교 지식인에게 `모하메드가 가져온 새로운 게 무엇인지를 나에게 보여달라. 당신은 모하메드로 부터 자신의 신념을 칼로써  전파하도록 명령을 내리는 등 사악하고 비인간적인 것들만을 발견하게 될 것이다'고 말했다.)

이 같은 교황님의 발언이 전해지자, 이슬람권은 즉각적인 사죄를 요구하며 강력히 비난하고 나섰다.

이집트 `무슬림 형제'의 지도자인 모하메드 마디 아케프는 성명을  통해  "그런 언급은 이슬람에 대한 정확한 이해를 드러내지 못하고 있으며, 단지 서방에서  되풀이 되는 잘못되고 왜곡된 신념일 뿐"이라고 비판하고 "서방 여론에 영향력을 지닌 가톨릭 교회의 수장으로부터 그런 언급이 나온 것은 충격적"이라고 말했다고 AP통신은 전했다.

사우디아라비아 지다에 본부를 둔 57개국으로 구성된 이슬람회의기구(OIC)도 깊은 유감을 표시하면서 "OIC는 이런 갑작스러운 캠페인이 이슬람 종교에 대한 바티칸 정책의 새로운 흐름을 반영하는 게 아니기를 바란다"며 "바티칸측은 이슬람을 정말 어떻게 바라보고 있는 지 밝히기를 기대한다"고 촉구했다.

파문이 이처럼 확산되자, 바티칸 당국은 교황님이 이슬람의 성전을  거론한  것은 기독교 신앙은 폭력과는 거리가 멀다는 점을 확실히 하기 위해 지엽적으로 옛날 책에 나오는 구절을 인용하셨을 뿐이며, 이슬람인들의 정서를  자극하기 위한 의도가 전혀 아니셨다고 말했다.

바티칸 대변인인 페데리코 롬바르디 신부님은 이날 교황님이 로마로 귀국하신 직후 발표한 성명을 통해 "지하드 및 지하드에 관한 이슬람인들의 생각을 깊숙이  파헤치려는 게 교황님의 의도가 아니었다"며 "더 더욱 이슬람 신자들의 감정을  건드릴 생각은 전혀 없으셨다"고 말했다.

이어 그는 교황님은 " 우리가 이슬람을 포함해 다른 종교들과 타 문화들을 향해 존경과 대화의 자세를 기르기를" 바라신다며, "교황님께서 자신의 마음속에 종교적 동기에 폭력이 개입되는 것에 대한 분명하고도 근본적인 거부가 자리잡고 있으신 점을 드러내신 것은 시의적절하다"고 덧붙였다.

강연 본문 중 오해를 일으킨 부분:

I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by professor Theodore Khoury (Muenster) of part of the dialogue carried on -- perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara -- by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.

It was probably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than the responses of the learned Persian. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Koran, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship of the "three Laws": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran.

In this lecture I would like to discuss only one point -- itself rather marginal to the dialogue itself -- which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason," I found interesting and which can serve as the starting point for my reflections on this issue.

In the seventh conversation ("diálesis" -- controversy) edited by professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the jihad (holy war). The emperor must have known that sura 2:256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion." It is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under [threat]. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy war.

Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels," he turns to his interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central question on the relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

강연 내용 핵심(Central points of Pope's lecture):

In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions.

A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures. At the same time, as I have attempted to show, modern scientific reason with its intrinsically Platonic element bears within itself a question which points beyond itself and beyond the possibilities of its methodology. Modern scientific reason quite simply has to accept the rational structure of matter and the correspondence between our spirit and the prevailing rational structures of nature as a given, on which its methodology has to be based.

Yet the question why this has to be so is a real question, and one which has to be remanded by the natural sciences to other modes and planes of thought -- to philosophy and theology. For philosophy and, albeit in a different way, for theology, listening to the great experiences and insights of the religious traditions of humanity, and those of the Christian faith in particular, is a source of knowledge, and to ignore it would be an unacceptable restriction of our listening and responding.

The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur -- this is the program with which a theology grounded in biblical faith enters into the debates of our time.

"Not to act reasonably (with logos) is contrary to the nature of God," said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.

                                --------------------------------

BERLIN-German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended Pope Benedict XVI on Friday against allegations that he had attacked Islam, saying critics had misunderstood comments the Pope made this week during a visit to his native Germany.