Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2015/05/13/to-be-perfectly-clear/ https://web.archive.org/web/20241218143534/https://catholiceducation.org/en/culture/cardinal-ratzinger-on-europe-s-crisis-of-culture.html **Short version** 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 [Christianity's] 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. **Longer version** > From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the “Logos,” as the religion according to reason. In the first place, it has not identified its precursors in the other religions, but in that philosophical enlightenment which has cleared the path of traditions to turn to the search of the truth and towards the good, toward the one God who is above all gods. > In so far as religion of the persecuted, in so far as universal religion, beyond the different states and peoples, it has denied the state the right to regard religion as a part of state ordering, thus postulating the freedom of faith. It has always defined men, all men without distinction, as creatures and images of God, proclaiming for them, in terms of principle, although within the imperative limits of social ordering, 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, whenever Christianity, against its nature and unfortunately, had become tradition and religion of the state.** Notwithstanding the philosophy, in so far as search for rationality — also of our faith –, was always a prerogative of Christianity, the voice of reason had been too domesticated. > **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.** In the pastoral constitution, On the Church in the Modern World, **Vatican Council II underlined again this profound correspondence between Christianity and the Enlightenment**, seeking to come to a true conciliation between the Church and modernity, **which is the great heritage that both sides must defend. > **Christianity must always remember that it is the religion of the Logos.** > Today, this should be precisely [Christianity's] 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. > **… 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.** https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChristianTranshumanistAssociation/posts/2665274123646830/ https://twitter.com/xianityplus/status/1716267315514208552 https://x.com/xianityplus/status/1854755997056651348