Pope Benedict’s attack on Islamic irrationality ignored Christianity’s own persecution of reason

Evidence

It is also significant that Pope Benedict, in denouncing Islam for lacking reason, failed to bring up the Catholic Church’s hostile opposition to the scientific revolution and to the birth of nonreligious and rational ways of understanding the world. The scientific revolution, and more broadly, the Enlightenment, stood in opposition to Christian dogma and were viewed as a threat by the Church. Scientists who employed reason and rationality to explain the physical world were severely punished. Perhaps as significantly, Giordano Bruno, who extended the Copernican model, was imprisoned for eight years by the Roman and Venetian Inquisitions for refusing to recant his beliefs around the same time that Akbar published his treatises on reason and nondenominational rule in India. Bruno was later burned at the stake. Galileo was similarly brought before the Inquisition and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life after he recanted his scientific theories. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 342

Categorization

• XREF: Sharpens the Aziz/Razack claim on liberal-vs-illiberal Islam framing by showing the ‘rational West’ itself suppressed reason — contradicts the Enlightenment purity the empire narrative asserts. — connects to: A pope resurrected the Orientalist equation of Islam with irrationality as recently as 2006; Enlightenment reason politics drove attacks on Christianity as irrational — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 158; Medieval Christian theologians branded Muslims irrational while abandoning rational proof of their own faith — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1234 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christian theologians branded Muslims irrational while abandoning rational proof of their own faith #exemplifies (0.82) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1234
• Ricoldo’s rationalist arguments against Islam were later turned against Christianity itself #complicates (0.78) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 374
• Enlightenment reason politics drove attacks on Christianity as irrational #complicates (0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 158