VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio
[with audio]
(Vatican Radio) Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI has had an exchange of letters with the noted Italian mathematician and philosopher, Piergiorgio Odifreddi, excerpts from which appeared in the Tuesday edition of the Italian daily, La Repubblica. At the beginning of September, Benedict sent a lengthy and detailed response to criticisms the atheist thinker Odifreddi had published in his volume, Caro papa ti scrivo, a book-length essay that was itself a critique of certain arguments and lines of thought found in the Pope-emeritus’ theological writings, starting from his 1967 volume, Introduction to Christianity.
The context of the exchange is therefore that of an ongoing conversation about the contents and merits of a lifetime of public intellectual engagement. The topics covered in the exchange range from the abuse crisis in the Church, to the question whether theology can properly be considered a science to the need for frank and open dialogue among believers and non-believers.
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