“Not to act according to reason is against the nature of God”: according to Benedict XVI, this statement opens, "in God’s understanding and therefore in the factual accomplishment of religion, a dilemma that challenges us, today, very straightforwardly”. As he gave his "lecture" in front of the scientific community convened today afternoon in the Assembly hall of Regensburg University and dwelt on the "synthesis of Greek spirit and Christian spirit”, the Pope asked: “Is the belief that acting against reason clashes with the nature of God just a Greek thought or does it applies at all times and in itself? I think he stated that this point brings to light a deep agreement between what is Greek in the best sense and what is faith in God in the foundation of the Bible”. A mutual inner reconciliation, which "is a decisive fact, not just from the perspective of the history of religions, but also from the perspective of universal history; a fact that still binds us today”. According to the Pontiff, it is not "surprising that Christianity, despite its origin and some important developments in the East, has found its historically-decisive inspiration in Europe. We can even look at this the other way round he commented -: this meeting, which would then be supplemented by the heritage of Rome, has created Europe and remains the foundation of what can be rightly called Europe”.
