← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · friedrich braun
Thread ID: 18320 | Posts: 11 | Started: 2005-05-20
2005-05-20 19:59 | User Profile
"A Humble Intellect"
Controversial German theologian Uta Ranke-Heinemann explains why she's glad that her former classmate has been made pope.
By John D. Spalding
Like many, I was stunned to learn yesterday that Cardinal Ratzinger, the great Enforcer of church doctrine, had been elected pope. Once the shock wore off, one of my first thoughts was, ââ¬ÅWhat does Uta make of all this?ââ¬Â
By Uta, Iââ¬â¢m referring to German theologian Uta Ranke-Heinemannââ¬âone of Pope John Paul IIââ¬â¢s most outspoken critics. She had also been a classmate of Joseph Ratzingerââ¬â¢s, when they were doctoral students together at the University of Munich in the early 1950s.
The daughter of the late Gustav Heinemann, president of West Germany from 1969 to 1974, Uta went on to become the worldââ¬â¢s first woman professor of Catholic theology when she was given a church-appointed chair at the University of Essen. She also became the bestselling author of several controversial books, including "Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven" and "Putting Away Childish Things," both of which sold millions of copies around the world. In 1987, the church declared Uta ineligible to teach, after she declared the virgin birth to be a theological belief and not a biological fact. She still holds a chair in religious studies at Essenââ¬âa state chair.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, of course, did not run afoul of the church, which is one reason why he is now the pope and Uta Ranke-Heinemann is not.
I thought of Uta yesterday becauseââ¬âto make a long story shortââ¬âI met her in April 1994 when I was working for Harper San Francisco, which had just published "Putting Away Childish Things." Harper had organized a U.S. book tour for Uta, two days into which she claimed to have suffered a "nervous breakdown" and threatened to cancel the tour unless someone was sent to escort her from city to city. I was put on a plane the following day. Over the next two weeks, I heard a great deal about Pope John Paul II (little of it good)ââ¬âand about Cardinal Ratzinger, of whom she spoke highly.
I reached Uta, now 77, by phone late last night at her home in Essen, Germany. We spoke for more than an hour. Hereââ¬â¢s some of what she had to say about the new pope.
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[url]http://www.somareview.com/humbleintellect.cfm[/url]
2005-05-21 03:56 | User Profile
Well when you think about it it all makes sense. Ratzinger, for nearly twenty years had the most unenviable job in Romanism, the chief enforcer of doctrine. I can just imagine all the phone calls he used to have to make to Bishops and Cardinals, most of them negative. Getting an unexpected call from Ratzinger must have been, at least initially, an unsettling experiance. "Oh geez." the Bishops must have thought "Its Ratzinger, one of my priests or theology professors must be denying the Virgin Birth or getting the Trinity all mixed up." The man must have a very compelling personality to be both the constant bearer of bad news AND a man respected in the church.
The fact that the early Ratzinger was an opponent of excessive Mariolotry is a good sign as far as I am concerned. I worry a lot that Rome will declare as a dogma that Mary is co-Redemptrix (the idea that Mary's sufferings at seeing the Lord die helped redeem the world.) This of course, is just too horrible to contemplate, it would attempt to turn the Triune God into a kind of wacky Quad-god. I feel that anyone believing such a thing on their deathbed will go straight to Hell for worshipping a false god. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.00!
2005-05-21 23:40 | User Profile
I'm with you on the excessive Mariolotry. What bothers me especially is the decline in legitimate Marian endeavors -- Legion of Mary, for instance -- at the expense of utterly contrived operations such as Medjugorje.
2005-05-21 23:42 | User Profile
Why do you think this one of the "best" pieces to date on Ratzinger?
2005-05-22 04:42 | User Profile
Unless I am misreading him, I think Ratzinger will keep the status quo on the Blessed Virgin.
2005-05-22 06:26 | User Profile
So Ratzinger is just a another Vatican II Degenerate. Uta Ranke-Heinemann seems like a degenerate leftist condom loving whore.
2005-05-22 14:00 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Faust]So Ratzinger is just a another Vatican II Degenerate. Uta Ranke-Heinemann seems like a degenerate leftist condom loving whore.[/QUOTE] Is it your belief that a man and a woman, married, should only make love in order to create children?
2005-05-23 01:43 | User Profile
Angeleyes,
I was more speaking to Uta Ranke-Heinemann tolerance of promiscuous fornication.
[QUOTE]"But under John Paul II, the repression of women and a kind of anti-sexual pessimism reached its highest peak... I believe thereââ¬â¢s a chance Ratzinger will permit the use of condoms by those who are AIDS infected"[/QUOTE]
Anyone with Aids who knowingly fornicates is guilty of murder; not just forication. To say they are free to fornicate if they use condoms is maddness. Rape is also a common way Aids is spread in Africa; should the church tell men to use a condom when they attack 12 year old girls.
2005-05-24 21:49 | User Profile
Rape is also a common way Aids is spread in Africa;
Total bullshit.
The most common vector of infection by AIDS or any of the other Israeli/US-AIDs CDR projects is "free medical supplies" and vaccinations along the lines of those we use to stealth-sterilize Phillipinos.
Beware the hag with the little black bag marked UNICEF, Peace Corps & CARE.
2005-05-25 03:46 | User Profile
=== Is it your belief that a man and a woman, married, should only make love in order to create children?
FWIW ... Catholics know that sex is unitive AND procreative.
Practicing Catholics leave their unitive sex open to the procreation for which it was designed by the Creator who is excluded from the marriage bed by other Christians who only pretend He is a part of their lives or in any way responsible for "planning" their "blessings."
2005-05-26 06:14 | User Profile
Fauts: Thanks for clearing that up. Irresponsible activity is dangerous, for sure. Learning and internalizing that wisdom . . . there's a challenge. The process is not helped by misinformation. Having spent some years as a sinner, I realize that enlightenment is not automatically granted by the ability to ingest oxygen. :blush:
Askel: Thanks for the dogma. Been a few years since the Pre Cana.
[QUOTE=askel5]=== Is it your belief that a man and a woman, married, should only make love in order to create children?
FWIW ... Catholics know that sex is unitive AND procreative.
Practicing Catholics leave their unitive sex open to the procreation for which it was designed by the Creator who is excluded from the marriage bed by other Christians who only pretend He is a part of their lives or in any way responsible for "planning" their "blessings."[/QUOTE]