Luther not bad after all:Pope

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23330585-26040,00.html



1. Citation: Tile- Luther not bad after all: Pope . The source of this article was the Australian and the date is March 7, 2008.

2. The article "Luther not bad after all: Pope", all and all is about the Pope finally giving Luther so recognition and realizing that believing in your faith is the most important aspect of religion. The Pope is finally taking a stand and trying to make amends with other religions, because he has realized the importance of faith. He is trying to end the hostility between religions and bring into perspective the fact that the all share something in common, a strong devotion to their religion and beliefs. An example of this would be the conflict he is trying to end between Christians and Muslims. He had made a comment of them being "inherently violent and irrational" and he would like to mend the differences with the Muslims. Although they do not share the same religion and beliefs he is trying to make it known that it does not matter, they need to view each other more "positively". Even though the Pope’s rude and somewhat inappropriate comments are mentioned in the article, he is addressing him and the fact that he is on a path to changing. He has decided to re-evaluate how religion is handled and I believe he is making a bold move, in the right direction.
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A) This article is an example of the Ap world theme of cultural, religious and intellectual developments. I believe that this article hits every one of these points. It’s cultural because of the fact that the Pope is almost promoting a somewhat unification of religious leaders, and this would therefore cause a cultural exchange. It is religious based on the mere fact that it is about the Pope, Muslims, Christians and Protestants. Also it could be considered a development of intellect because the Pope himself is growing, and learning new ways to run the Papacy, and therefore expanding his knowledge and use of it.

B) The historical background of this current issue is that the Pope and Luther have different views on how a religion should be run. Luther is blamed for the division of the Christian church, based on him trying to do good. Also Luther opposes the idea of living lavishly such as the Pope does because Luther himself was a monk and therefore not into the idea of self- indulgence. On the other hand when it comes to Christians versus Muslims, it has been a long dispute between the two of them because they can not agree upon religions, and therefore decide to argue about them. Overall this conflict had become because no one shared the same views.

C) The point of view of this article is a roman man named Richard Owen. We can assume he is a follower of the Pope and his teachings. Therefore he would be consider an "insider" and may have altered views due to that.

D) I believe that this article could contain some bias because of the fact that the author is himself a Roman and therefore would not speak badly of his own people. Also the fact that he has most likely grown up under the religion of the Pope and therefore does not know otherwise or much of others views. Overall his opinion may be biased just from the fact of his being a Roman citizen.

E) In order to better understand this article I think dialogue from other religious leaders such as Muslims, Protestants, etc. By having their point of view it gives a twist to the article because you can hear from different sides of the argument. You would get a better understanding of how others viewed what was going on, and how they felt about everything that is happening. Also how they felt of the Pope’s comments and his new decision to now make a change.

F) My reaction to this article was somewhat surprised and somewhat pleased. I believe that we need to make a change in how we communicate and how we interact we other religions. We are all human beings and yet at times we can treat each other like animals. Arguments over religion, I believe is childish in some ways. There should be a way for us all to live in the same environment and get along. In my eyes I don’t see why that is a big issue, yet it is. I was surprised because I did not believe that the Pope would be the first one to mention wanting to make a change in the way things are being run. I think that because of all this finally being discussed it could either be the start of something wonderful or could cause some much conflict it ends horribly.