On 12 Feb the Holy Father recently addressed seminarians of Rome. Sandro Magister relates that he commented on a passage from John 15 and referred to a letter to him by a professor at the University of Regensburg, contesting the Christian view of God.
Benedict XVI said that he had recognized in the professor’s objections "the eternal temptation of dualism, meaning that there is not only a good principle, but also a bad principle, a principle of evil, and that the good God is only a part of reality."
And he added:
"Even in theology, including Catholic theology, this idea is currently being spread: that God is not omnipotent. This is an attempt to find a justification for God, who in this way would not be responsible for the evil that we find so widely throughout the world. But what a poor justification! A God who is not omnipotent! Evil does not lie in his hands! And how could we trust ourselves to this God? How could we be sure of his love if this love ends where the power of evil begins?"
There are challenges also in Christology today, deep challenges even within the Church.
We drilled into a challenge inhering in a bad translation of consubstantialis.
Think of the challenge presented by the habitual way in which Holy Mass is handled in many places.
Food for thought.
