%0 Journal Article
%T Does God Speak Greek?: Pope Benedict XVI¡¯s Euro
%A Katie Grimes
%J Theology Today
%@ 2044-2556
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0040573618783422
%X Contemporary critics of Christian supersessionism rightly despise its connection to Christianity¡¯s historical persecution of the Jewish people. But theologians and other scholars have not paid enough attention to the political work Christian supersessionism continues to do today. To this end, I examine the work of Pope Benedict XVI, arguing that what I term ¡°Euro-supremacist supersessionism¡± pervades and helps to shape his theology. Benedict¡¯s supersessionism serves to describe Europe and Christianity as inextricably linked: just as Europe is an essentially Christian continent so is Christianity an essentially European religion. Because it perceives this cultural formation as uniquely universal, Benedict¡¯s supersessionism also advocates a type of European supremacy. But despite its roots in and resonances with German philosophical anti-Judaism, Benedict¡¯s Eurocentric supersessionism does not advance an anti-Jewish politics. His Eurocentric supersessionism instead leads him to take political aim at three initially surprising targets: one, the growing presence of Islam within Europe; two, Europe¡¯s intensifying embrace of lesbian and gay rights; and three, certain strands of liberation theology that originate outside of Europe. Why? I argue that, for Benedict, each of these movements both endangers the marriage he has established between Europe and Christianity¡ªa union he deems necessary to each entity¡¯s survival¡ªand undermines his claim that Christianized Europe possesses a unique universality, which I argue supplies the main source of his implicit belief in its supremacy over all other cultural systems
%K supersessionism
%K sexual ethics
%K Catholicism
%K Islam
%K liberation theology
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0040573618783422