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April 26, 2005

The crescent and the conclave

I have no idea who "Spengler" might be but he raises an interesting point. The new Pope may be more willing than the last to attempt to convert Muslims, and especially European Muslims, to Christianity. This leads me to wonder why Evangelical Protestants or, say, Mormons, have not been conspicuous in the same project. It is not like they are shy about trying to convert everybody else. In fact, their active attempt to convert Catholics, particularly in Latin America, is one of the obvious challenges faced by the new Pontiff. My own Christianity is of a non-proselytizing variety (hence Friends are few in number) so I am curious to learn what other Christians will make of what is certain to be a contentious idea.

Now that everyone is talking about Europe's demographic death, it is time to point out that there exists a way out: convert European Muslims to Christianity. The reported front-runner at the Vatican conclave that began on Monday, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, is one of the few Church leaders unafraid to raise the subject. Hedonistic dissipation well may have condemned the existing Europeans to infecundity and extinction, but that does not prevent Europe from getting new ones. It has been done before.

Europe in the 8th century was a depopulated ruin. The loss of half the Roman Empire's population by the 7th century left vast territories open to Islam, which rapidly absorbed the formerly Christian Levant, North Africa and Spain. By converting successive waves of invading pagans - Lombards, Magyars, Vikings, Celts, Saxons, Slavs - Christianity reinvented Europe, and held Islam at bay.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at April 26, 2005 08:43 AM

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Las Vegas Sun:

"Yet peace is also a duty to which all peoples must be committed, especially those who profess to belong to religious traditions," [Benedict XVI] said. "Our efforts to come together and foster dialogue are a valuable contribution to building peace on solid foundations."

"I assure you that the church wants to continue building bridges of friendship with the followers of all religions, in order to seek the true good of every person and of society as a whole," he said.
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I think I can see the start of how he's going about it, here- especially in the latter quote: "...the true good of every person and of society as a whole."
He may be making an effort to get each person, muslim or no, to examine their own conscience. A very Catholic approach!

As to your question: I think that Evangelicals at present are only doing token things, like sending bibles to the ME and such. It'll be interesting if they start to take note of B-XVI's lead.

Posted by: urthshu [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 26, 2005 10:43 PM

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