You may be aware of a story that has been floating around the blogosphere/MSM regarding comments allegedly made by B16 to the effect that Islam is incapable of changing and its to the modern world.
The story is based on comments made by Fr. Joseph Fessio to Hugh Hewitt on his radio show.
In some places folks have been making a lot out of this,
SUCH AS HERE.
But before people go off half-cocked on this one, they need to read a very important clarification of his remarks issued by Fr. Fessio in response to the article I just linked.
READ IT HERE.
(CHT: Insight scoop.)
UPDATE: MORE HERE FROM SANDRO MAGISTER. (Thanks to the reader who e-mailed!)
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
View all posts by Jimmy Akin
A helpful clarification indeed. Speaking extemporaneously on the air myself as often as I do, I often worry about things that slip out less precisely or less well-thought-out-ly than I’d prefer. Fr. Fessio’s clarification, and his larger point, is well taken.
Both Christianity and Islam have scriptures which they view as an “eternal word” with an irreformable message; however, the Christian scriptures are given by inspiration, the word of God in the words of men — just as the living Word of God became a man like other men in all respects except sin, so the revealed word of God became human words like other human words in all respects except error.
Thus, what is asserted by the human author is also asserted by the Holy Spirit — but first you have to ascertain what is asserted by the human author. This means approaching the text in a human way, according to the conventions and limitations of human literature and culture, making allowances for the difference between the writer’s culture and one’s own.
The Koran, by contrast, is believed to have been given by verbal dictation, the word of God in the words of God, with no mediation of human cultural conventions. This model allows for less flexibility in applying the meaning of the Koran to different cultural situations, since God’s word is given here in a form free from cultural accoutrements.
Nevertheless, human beings can never rid themselves of their own cultural assumptions in approaching a text, which means that interpretations of the Koran will still vary with shifting cultural trends, allowing Islam to evolve and develop, if with less flexibility and nuance than Christianity.
God bless Fr. Fessio for his honesty and integrity.
I was very happy to see him at the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco with many other priests, nuns and brothers.
J+M+J