"The European heritage also includes a tradition of thought, according to which a substantial correspondence between faith, truth and reason is essential". It was recalled today by the Pope, who devoted a paragraph of his speech at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna to the "dialogue of reason". "It is the question he explained about whether reason is at the beginning of all things and at their foundation as well; whether reality is originated by chance and necessity, if reason is therefore the casual by-product of the irrational, or whether instead what makes up the basic belief of the Christian faith remains true". "The origin of all things explained the Pope as he quoted John’s prologue, ‘In the beginning was the Word’ is the generating Reason of God who decided to bestow Himself on us human beings". Hence the relevance of Jürgen Habermas’ philosophy, quoted by the Pope: "Egalitarian universalism, which originated the ideas of freedom and sympathetic cohabitation, is an immediate heritage of Judaic justice and the Christian ethics of love. Unchanged in its substance, this heritage has always been endorsed again and again in a critical manner, and interpreted again. There is no alternative to this today".
