Pope says real dialogue looks for truth, unity

Published: 2008-05-14

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Real dialogue is not a superficial exchange of ideas, Pope Benedict XVI said. "The true spirit of dialogue looks not for the things that separate us, but for the truth" whose light will cast aside all that is false and unite on the basis of experiencing what is true, he said. At his May 14 general audience in St. Peter's Square, the pope spoke about a sixth-century author whose writings have been attributed to a first-century disciple of St. Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite. Instead of reading from his prepared text, the pope spoke extemporaneously about this "rather mysterious" author who created the "first mystical theology" in the Christian tradition. Dionysius took the polytheistic and "deeply anti-Christian" Neoplatonic philosophy at the time and transformed them into a Christian theology that was accessible to people by using the "common thinking and language" of the revived Greek philosophy, the pope said.

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