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Christianity Today executive editor Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School, says Pope John Paul II authored theological masterpieces that will be studied for centuries, and fostered a climate that led to historic Catholic-evangelical dialogue. George spoke with CT assistant editor Collin Hansen.

Help us gauge the historical significance of Pope John Paul II.

There are only two possible competitors to John Paul II being the most significant pope since the Reformation: Pius IX in the 19th century, who was also one of the youngest popes ever and reigned for a long, long time. Vatican I and the doctrine of papal infallibility happened under him, along with the loss of the papal states.

The other competitor would be John XXIII, and that's just because of Vatican II. But his pontificate was so brief, it was almost like a flare against the darkness. So I think John Paul II, on balance, given everything, would rise above even them.

How did John Paul II change Catholicism in relation to evangelical Protestantism?

He was eagerly interested in reaching out to everybody. I think his greatest interest, ecumenically, was not with Protestants or evangelicals, it was with the Eastern Orthodox churches. He talked about the church being able to breathe with its two lungs, of which he meant East and West. He saw the Protestant movement and evangelicalism as an offshoot of one of the lungs, and therefore not urgent on the agenda.

But having said that, I think he came to see, particularly in the last probably 10 to 15 years of his pontificate, the enormous importance of evangelicalism as a world Christian force. You know the often quoted statement by Wolfhart Pannenberg that the three great ascendant forces in world Christianity in the 21st century will be Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestant evangelicalism.

And the pope, because he was the most-traveled pope in history with more than 200 countries visited, was able to see some of this up close and personal. He particularly saw it in places like Africa and Latin America, where evangelicalism, often in a Pentecostal form, was growing, vibrant, and sometimes clashing with Roman Catholics.

Also, it was John Paul II, of course, who invented the phrase "culture of life." And as evangelicals became more engaged with the public square on issues of life and death—the pro-life abortion issue, but also euthanasia and many related concerns—the pope provided a moral impetus that we didn't have internally within our community.

The one exception to that is Francis Schaeffer. Actually it was the pope and Francis Schaeffer who got evangelicals on board the pro-life concern. I mean I'm a Southern Baptist, and after Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, the SBC passed a resolution supporting the pro-abortion point of view.

On what grounds?

Well the grounds of freedom, of religion and not wanting the government to mingle in personal affairs—some of the same arguments you hear today. But this was the Southern Baptist Convention.

Francis Schaeffer, as a great evangelical leader, challenged evangelicals to get involved and to see the issues. The pope gave a moral rationale for that and gave a leadership role to that concern that galvanized Catholics and evangelicals together on issues of life in this culture.

And what was his rationale?

It's most clearly expressed in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae: The Gospel of Life, in which he essentially argues for the integrity of every individual person made in the image of God, and that the gospel, if we're going to be faithful to that gospel and faithful to biblical anthropology, requires us to be engaged as advocates for the sanctity of human life wherever we encounter it. That's a very brief summary of about a 70-page document.

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April (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49