tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post2085845138775723432..comments2024-03-27T21:42:56.131-05:00Comments on 1001plus: One is Too ManySJHoneywellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-17469891018389713822020-02-23T19:09:26.394-06:002020-02-23T19:09:26.394-06:00Those early moments with Ratzinger are almost biza...Those early moments with Ratzinger are almost bizarre. There's an exchange between the two about an album that Benedict recorded, somewhere where the Beatles had once played. "It was part of a church," he says.<br /><br />"Oh, Abbey Road?"<br /><br />"Why would it be an abbey?"<br /><br />That's...just bizarre. It borders on dementia-style thinking, or the thinking of someone completely detached from the world in the oddest way. That might be what they were going for, but even a pope needs to know something of the secular world, doesn't he?SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-56104016206386647032020-02-23T19:07:29.322-06:002020-02-23T19:07:29.322-06:00I'm a very lapsed liberal Protestant. I was ra...I'm a very lapsed liberal Protestant. I was raised in what is probably the most liberal denomination, or at least in the neighborhood of the most liberal. Religion fascinates me to some degree--I was quite religious as a kid, and always intersted in spirituality to some degree. My reasons for that interest are really all that have changed.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-31113264899840256612020-02-21T00:45:41.938-06:002020-02-21T00:45:41.938-06:00"I have to wonder who thought it would be a g...<b>"I have to wonder who thought it would be a good idea to have Anthony Hopkins play Pope Benedict as either deficient mentally or clueless of all culture. It is literally as if he believes Ratzinger suffered from some slow-paced dementia that only affects very specific things. It’s an odd choice."</b><br /><br />Important insight, there. Before his elevation to the papacy, Ratzinger was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the modern, antiseptic name for what used to be known more sinisterly as The Inquisition. He was a staunch conservative defender of Catholic doctrine, and he made as many enemies inside and outside the Church as he did friends. Ratzinger, fluent in several languages as is true of most alumni of the Ducal Georgianum, had an exceptionally sharp, sophisticated mind in his heyday. I don't think he was quite the dodderer that JP2 was when he (Ratzinger/Benedict) left the papacy, although he himself claimed a certain feebleness of mind in stating his reasons for retiring.<br /><br />I'll be curious to watch this movie and form my own opinions. Whatever my political leanings, I still consider myself to be a flaming religious liberal—nonliteralist, nontraditional, anti-dogmatic, and very pluralistic. My time in the MA program at Catholic U., however, taught me to treat the conservative perspective with more respect than I had shown it previously. As you write, I discovered that "the positions of the other are held for reasons other than simplicity or convenience." There are, in fact, strong conservative rebuttals to, for example, the religious pluralism that I cherish. It's a mistake to automatically dismiss a different perspective. So I still think of myself as very religiously liberal, but it's a tempered liberalism—tempered enough to make me think that the current pope is a bit too cavalier in his attempts to deconstruct modern Catholicism. Too much, too fast, even if it's all in the right direction, theologically speaking.<br /><br />Anyway, thanks for the nuanced review. Just a reminder of why I frequent this blog. Another movie for my queue.Kevin Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-86726384474660159892020-02-20T23:24:39.451-06:002020-02-20T23:24:39.451-06:00I'm still intrigued by this not just for the s...I'm still intrigued by this not just for the story but also the ideas of Catholicism since I'm kind of a lapse Catholic myself.thevoid99https://www.blogger.com/profile/03055459287396592446noreply@blogger.com