Since his pontification, Pope Benedict XVI is diligently recasting his image from a rigorous traditional theologian to a flexible priest. During past few days, the Pope has expressed his regrets four times about a quotation in a talk he gave at the University of Regensburg on September 12.

The once obscure quotation from a 14th century text is now read by a lot of people, religious or not. It says:

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.

To fully understand why the Pope quoted this paragraph, a responsible commentator must read the Pope’s original speech. This quotation is taken from a dialogue between a 14th century Byzantine emperor and his Persian guest. There the emperor made a point that violence is not what God likes. The Pope apparently shared this idea with him.

Things always go wrong when people take quotations out of context. Why did the Pope quote this paragraph but not others? There are numerous quotations which can illustrate the same point. Furthermore, when the Pope quoted this paragraph, did he endorse the view that Mohammed spread faith by violence?

Unfortunately, the Pope didn’t notice these subtle problems behind this quotation. He didn’t realize that this quotation can inflame the whole Islam world. For them, the “Mohammed” is a sacred name. No question should be raised against him in any form. Unfortunately, the Pope violated this rule. As a well learned scholar and a prestigious person, the Pope is not allowed to make this mistake. He should apologize to the Islam world.

However, leaving this mistake alone, the Pope did make some useful observations. This talk may have profound effects on modern religion thoughts if not tainted by his obnoxious quotation.

In the talk, the Pope tried to answer this question: “Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God’s nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?”

The question the Pope posed is timely and legitimate. Every western people, religious or not, is puzzled by the rationality and motivation of Islamic jihad (holy war). Jihad is intrinsically violent. I think maybe because of this, the Pope quoted that terrible paragraph.

The Pope’s thesis was that God acts with logos. In Greek, logo means both reason and word. Thus John opened his Gospel with “in the beginning was the logos (in the Greek version).” Certainly, this is a play of words. But the implication is very interesting.

As the Pope pointed out, our Bible, translated from the Greek version, was an reconstruction from both Greek philosophy and Biblical teaching. Reasoning was embedded in the Biblical teaching from the very beginning.

Therefore, many people tried to take out the Greek influence in the Bible and reveal the true meaning of God’s words. This dehellenization has undergone three stages: the Reformation in the 16th century from which the fundamentalism derives; liberal theology in which the God of philosophers and the God of Abraham were separated; and the modern deculturation in which people believe the true meaning of God’s word should be separated from the Greek culture (and western culture in general) so that it can incorporate with other cultures.

The Pope disagreed with the idea of dehellenization. He reasoned that since the Bible had all the imprints of the Greek culture, it could live in harmony with other cultures as well.

During his speech, the Pope also made several interesting points on science and religion. He stated that if science was defined as “the interplay of mathematical and empirical elements,” then humanity, including psychology, sociology, and philosophy, should not conform themselves to “scientificity.” He concluded that reason and faith could be integrated in a new way, “if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons.” Human spirituality is an important subject and needs to be studied. Thus, theology is by itself a discipline, is parallel to science, and is an “inquiry into the rationality of faith.”

Only the power of reasoning, the Pope believed, should we use to embody other cultures. God acts with logos.

Disclaimer: not to repeat the Pope’s mistake, let me make it clear that I do not believe in any religion, and I don’t endorse any words in the Pope’s quotation, nor are those said by the Pope.