Word: theologian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...interreligious gatherings in the medieval Italian town of Assisi. It was well known in Vatican circles that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, among the Pope's most loyal lieutenants, was lukewarm to the Assisi enthusiasm. The German Cardinal was, after all, among the world's most rigorous (and traditionalist) Catholic theologians, skeptical of any attempt to water down differences among faiths. Still, when that same theologian became Pope Benedict XVI, he understood that the hard-won lines of communication with the world's other faiths must stay open...
...Thus taken together with this commitment to dialogue, the Pope's lecture in Regensburg seems to be saying: Yes, we must indeed talk, but now is the time for hard questions-not hugs and handshakes. The upside to Benedict's approach is that a brilliant theologian-Pope may help sharpen the terms of the debate. The downside is that he risks not connecting with the masses-or worse, being misinterpreted and manipulated by both his own followers, and those of other faiths. As a worldwide preacher-and no longer just an ivory-tower intellectual or Vatican bureaucrat-Benedict must still...
...Some, in fact, predict that Bertone - a longtime trusted confidante of the former Cardinal Ratzinger - was handpicked to be Secretary of State in order to usher in a virtual revolution in the way Catholic Church headquarters operates. Through an effort that will be part downsizing, part priority overhaul, the theologian pontiff is said to want Church headquarters to be both a more holy and a more efficient entity...
...changes. Defying conventional wisdom that the doctrinal capo had to be a European intellectual heavy hitter, the Pope chose the shy California native whom he'd known well when they worked together in Rome in the early 1980s. By choosing Levada it was also evident that the Vatican's theologian-in-chief would remain the former Cardinal Ratzinger...
Confronting such stories, certain more doctrinally traditional Christians go ballistic. Last March, Ben Witherington, an influential evangelical theologian at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky, thundered that "we need to renounce the false gospel of wealth and health--it is a disease of our American culture; it is not a solution or answer to life's problems." Respected blogger Michael Spencer--known as the Internet Monk--asked, "How many young people are going to be pointed to Osteen as a true shepherd of Jesus Christ? He's not. He's not one of us." Osteen is an irresistible target for experts from...