Pope Benedict XVI presides over ecumenical vespers in the St. Peter's Cathedral of Regensburg yesterday. - Reuters

REGENSBURG, Germany, (Reuters):

Pope Benedict invited Muslims yesterday to join a dialogue of cultures based on the premise that the concept of an Islamic "holy war" is unreasonable and against God's nature.

In a major lecture at Regensburg University, where he taught theology between 1969 to 1977, Benedict said Christianity is tightly linked to reason and contrasted this view with those who believe in spreading their faith by the sword.

The 79-year-old Pontiff avoided making a direct criticism of Islam, packaging his comments in a highly complex academic lecture with references ranging from ancient Jewish and Greek thinking to Protestant theology and modern atheism.

14th century Byzantine emperor quoted

In his lecture, the Pope quoted, among others, the 14th century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologos who wrote that Mohammad had brought things "only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The Pope, who used the terms "jihad" and "holy war" in his lecture, added in his own words: "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul".

Benedict several times quoted Emperor Manuel's argument that spreading the faith through violence is unreasonable and that acting without reason — "logos" in the original Greek — was against God's nature.