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Benedict has indicated that one of the major concerns of his pontificate will be the unity of all Christians. While evangelicals and Roman Catholics share much, there are also major flashpoints of conflict, especially in Africa and Latin America, where both communities of faith are thriving—and often competing for the same souls. As a professor at Tübingen during the turbulent '60s, Ratzinger forged an alliance with Peter Beyerhaus and other evangelical leaders to stand together against the forces of unchecked secularism and unbelief.

"We saw," Benedict said, "that the confessional controversies we had previously engaged in were small indeed in the face of the challenge we now confronted, which put us in a position of having, together, to bear witness to our common faith in the living God and in Christ, the incarnate Word." Though the battlefronts have shifted, the same kind of cooperation between faithful evangelicals and believing Roman Catholics is no less urgent today.

Roman Catholicism is not a cult, and the pope is not the Antichrist. Just so, evangelicals are not a sect, and the gospel call for all people to repent and turn to Jesus is not proselytism. When we come closer to Christ, we come closer to one another, and such stereotypes are overcome. Though he does not often quote John Calvin, I believe Benedict would agree with these words from the great Protestant pastor about the way we express our common Christian convictions: "That we acknowledge no unity except in Christ; no charity of which he is not the bond, and that, therefore, the chief point in preserving charity is to maintain faith, sacred and entire."

Why was the papal name of Benedict chosen? Benedict XV, who was pope from 1914 to 1922, tried unsuccessfully to bring peace to the warring nations of Europe. No doubt the new pope will seek to be a peacemaker as well. He will face a new and virulent challenge with the rise of militant Islam. But I rather think the pope had in mind two earlier Benedicts in the history of the church.

Benedict of Aniane was a monastic reformer who lived at the time of Charlemagne. He brought beauty and order to the worship of God, providing a system of liturgical prayer for the Christians of Europe during the so-called Dark Ages. The prayer life of the church sustained Christians, and kept the light of faith burning when Rome was in ashes and memories of the saints and martyrs grew dim.

Benedict of Aniane was building upon the work of an even earlier Benedict, Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western monasticism. His rule for living together in Christian community is still followed by many monks today. Benedict of Nursia was known for his kindness, charity, and humility—well-attested traits of the present pope as well.

But the movement he began fanned out across Europe, as Benedictine monks carried the Bible and message of Christ to the most pagan corners of Europe. These two themes—the renewal of the church through the worship of God, and the evangelization of the world through the power of the gospel—may well mark the legacy of this present pontificate: a new Benedictine moment in the history of the church.

Timothy George is dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and an executive editor of CT.

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June 2005, Vol. 49, No. 6