Dehellenization of Christianity

( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Pope Benedict XVI Dehellenization refers to a disillusionment with forms of Greek philosophy that emerged in the Hellenistic Period , and in particular to a rejection of the use of reason . The term was first used in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI in a speech "Faith, Reason, and the University: Memories and Reflections," to refer to attempts to separate Christianity from Greek philosophical thought. Subsequently, the term figured prominently in Robert R. Reilly 's book The Closing of the Muslim Mind : How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis , to refer to what Reilly characterized as "the religion of Islam's divorce from reason and rationality." The extent and significance of dehellenization in both the Christian and Islamic religious traditions continues to be widely disputed. "Faith, Reason, and the University: Memories and Reflections," Lecture of the Holy Father at Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg, September 2006, para. 9

Divorce of Christianity from Greek philosophy ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Dehellenization is a term used in Catholicism to refer to the idea that Christianity should be divorced from its roots in ancient Greek philosophical thought . The idea was proposed by the Canadian philosopher Leslie Dewart in his 1966 book The Future of Belief: Theism in a World Come of Age as a measure to counteract the progressive alienation of Catholic doctrine from the modern worldview, which Dewart believed was caused by Catholic theology's baneful dependence on antiquated and essentially pre-modern philosophical modes of thought. Dehellenization was strongly rejected in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI in a speech called Faith, Reason, and the University: Memories and Reflections (the Regensburg lecture ). The speech advocates the harmony between faith and reason , arguing that Christianity is fundamentally a Hellenized religion.