POPE BENEDICT XVIKurt Hu ̈bner has recently formulated a similar demand and said that such a theory
is not, in the first instance, about a ‘‘return to faith’’ but rather about ‘‘freeing oneself
from the epochal misconception that it [i.e., faith] has nothing more to say to contempo-
rary man because it contradicts his humanistic idea of reason, enlightenment, and free-
dom.’’^6 I would, accordingly, speak of a necessary correlativity of reason and faith, of
reason and religion, which are appointed to mutually cleanse and heal one another, which
mutually need one another and mutually must recognize this need.
- This basic principle must be, in practice, concretized in our present intercultural
context. Without a doubt, the two primary partners in this correlativity are Christian faith
and Western secular rationality. One can and must be able to say this, without any kind
of false eurocentrism. Both determine the state of the world to a degree that no other
cultural force does. But that still does not mean that one may push other cultures aside
as a kind ofquantite ́ne ́gligeable. This would indeed be a Western hybris, one that we
would pay for dearly and to a certain extent already do. It is important for the two large
components of Western culture to allow themselves to listen, to involve themselves in a
true correlativity with these cultures as well. It is important to involve the latter in an
attempt at a polyphonic correlation, in which they would open themselves up to the
essential complementarity of reason and faith. As a result, a universal process of cleansing
can grow, one in which the essential values and norms that are somehow intuited by all
people can finally attain new power to illuminate, in order that what holds the world
together can again have an effective influence on humanity.
—Translated by Anh NguyenPAGE 268268.................16224$ CH12 10-13-06 12:35:20 PS