section_path: Papacy: 2005–2013/Teachings/Christianity as religion according to reason
section_name: Christianity as religion according to reason
paragraph_text: Christianity as religion according to reason
  
  In the discussion with secularism and rationalism, one of Benedict's basic ideas can be found in his address on the "Crisis of Culture" in the West, a day before Pope John Paul II died, when he referred to Christianity as the "religion of the Logos " (the Greek for "word", "reason", "meaning", or "intelligence"). He said:
  
  From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the Logos, as the religion according to reason... It has always defined men, all men without distinction, as creatures and images of God, proclaiming for them... the same dignity. In this connection, the Enlightenment is of Christian origin and it is no accident that it was born precisely and exclusively in the realm of the Christian faith.... It was and is the merit of the Enlightenment to have again proposed these original values of Christianity and of having given back to reason its own voice... Today, this should be precisely philosophical strength, in so far as the problem is whether the world comes from the irrational, and reason is not other than a 'sub-product,' on occasion even harmful of its development – or whether the world comes from reason, and is, as a consequence, its criterion and goal... In the so necessary dialogue between secularists and Catholics, we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the Logos, from creative reason, and that, because of this, is also open to all that is truly rational.
  
  Benedict also emphasised that "Only creative reason, which in the crucified God is manifested as love, can really show us the way."
  
  In the discussion with secularism and rationalism, one of Benedict's basic ideas can be found in his address on the "Crisis of Culture" in the West, a day before Pope John Paul II died, when he referred to Christianity as the "religion of the Logos " (the Greek for "word", "reason", "meaning", or "intelligence"). He said:
  
  From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the Logos, as the religion according to reason... It has always defined men, all men without distinction, as creatures and images of God, proclaiming for them... the same dignity. In this connection, the Enlightenment is of Christian origin and it is no accident that it was born precisely and exclusively in the realm of the Christian faith.... It was and is the merit of the Enlightenment to have again proposed these original values of Christianity and of having given back to reason its own voice... Today, this should be precisely philosophical strength, in so far as the problem is whether the world comes from the irrational, and reason is not other than a 'sub-product,' on occasion even harmful of its development – or whether the world comes from reason, and is, as a consequence, its criterion and goal... In the so necessary dialogue between secularists and Catholics, we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the Logos, from creative reason, and that, because of this, is also open to all that is truly rational.
  
  Benedict also emphasised that "Only creative reason, which in the crucified God is manifested as love, can really show us the way."