God Isn't a Science Experiment, Says Pope
Explains He Is a Subject Who Relates Person-to-Person

VATICAN CITY, JULY 1, 2011 (www.Zenit.org).- Is the classic definition of theology -- "the science of faith" -- actually a contradiction in itself? Does faith not cease to be faith when it becomes science? And does not science cease to be science when it is ordered or even subordinated to faith?

These are the questions that Benedict XVI proposed Thursday when he presented the first three Ratzinger Prizes. The prize, called the Nobel of theology, was issued for the first time by the new Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, founded last March.

The awards went to an Italian layman, Manlio Simonetti; a Spanish priest, Olegario González de Cardedal; and a German Cistercian, Father Maximilian Heim.

The Holy Father spoke briefly about the careers of each of the winners, but then offered a reflection on the nature of theology itself.

He proposed that Christianity was revolutionary in that it broke with ancient religions' focus on religious customs, and proposed instead love of the truth. This concept is found in the Gospel of John, which speaks of Christ as Logos, he noted.

"If Christ is the Logos, the truth, man must correspond to Him with his own logos, with his reason. To arrive at Christ, man must be on the path of truth," the Pontiff explained. Man must open himself to creative Reason, from which his own reason is derived.
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