Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology (History of Christian-Muslim Relations)

401 Pages·2008·2.08 MB·English

by  David Thomas

2008030.(Brill:15983)Thomas.Voorwerk.Proef5.22-7-2008:16.28,page-1.
Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology
2008030.(Brill:15983)Thomas.Voorwerk.Proef5.22-7-2008:16.28,page-2.
History of
Christian-Muslim
Relations
EditorialBoard
David Thomas,UniversityofBirmingham
Tarif Khalidi,American UniversityofBeirut
Gerrit Jan Reinink,UniversityofGroningen
Mark Swanson,LutheranSchoolofTheologyatChicago
VOLUME10
2008030.(Brill:15983)Thomas.Voorwerk.Proef5.22-7-2008:16.28,page-3.
Christian Doctrines
in Islamic Theology
By
David Thomas
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2008
2008030.(Brill:15983)Thomas.Voorwerk.Proef5.22-7-2008:16.28,page-4.
Frontcoverillustration: isthenameofGodYahinSyriac,withthedotsindicatingboth
trinityandunicity.ItisusedasakindofbasmallahsigninallimportantEastSyriantexts.
ChristiansandMuslimshavebeeninvolvedinexchangesovermattersoffaithandmorality
sincethefoundingofIslam.Attitudesbetweenthefaithstodayaredeeplycolouredbythe
legacyofpastencounters,andoftenpreservecenturies-oldnegativeviews.
TheHistoryofChristian-MuslimRelations,TextsandStudiespresentsthesurvivingrecordofpast
encountersinauthoritative,fullyintroducedtexteditionsandannotatedtranslations,andalso
monographandcollectedstudies.Itillustratesthedevelopmentinmutualperceptionsasthese
arecontainedinsurvivingChristianandMuslimwritings,andmakesavailablethearguments
andrhetoricalstrategiesthat,forgoodorforill,havelefttheirmarkonattitudestoday.The
seriescastslightonahistorymarkedbyintellectualcreativityandoccasionalbreakthroughsin
communication,although,onthewholebesetbymisunderstandingandmisrepresentation.By
makingthishistorybetterknown,theseriesseekstocontributetoimprovedrecognition
betweenChristiansandMuslimsinthefuture.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Thomas,David(DavidRichard),1948-
ChristiandoctrinesinIslamictheology/ByDavidThomas.
p.cm.--(HistoryofChristian-Muslimrelations;v.10)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-90-04-16935-7(hardback:alk.paper)1.Islam--Relations--Christianity.
2.Christianityandotherreligions--Islam.3.Bible--Islamicinterpretations.
4.Christianity--Influence.I.Title.II.Series.
BP172.T462008
297.2'93--dc22
2008031328
ISSN: 1570-7350
ISBN:9789004169357
Copyright2008byKoninklijkeBrillNV,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
KoninklijkeBrillNVincorporatestheimprintsBrill,HoteiPublishing,
IDCPublishers,MartinusNijhoffPublishersandVSP.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,translated,storedin
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printedinthenetherlands
2008030.Thomas.01_Prelims.proef5.22-7-2008:17.02,page-5.
CONTENTS
Foreword............................................................... vii
ChapterOne.MuslimTheologiansandChristianDoctrines....... 1
ChapterTwo.Al-Na¯shi"al-Akbar..................................... 19
ChapterThree.Abu¯ Mans.u¯ral-Ma¯tur¯ıd¯ı............................ 79
ChapterFour.Abu¯ Bakral-Ba¯qilla¯n¯ı .................................119
ChapterFive.#Abdal-Jabba¯ribnAh.madal-Hamadha¯ni ...........205
Bibliography ...........................................................379
ReferencestotheBibleandtheQur"a¯n..............................385
Index ...................................................................387
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FOREWORD
This book brings together the arguments against Christianity in four
Muslim theological treatises from the fourth/tenth century. They are
the first systematic treatises that have survived from Muslim authors,
and they include works by three of the leading theological experts of
the early Islamic era, al-Ma¯tur¯ıd¯ı, al-Ba¯qilla¯n¯ı and #Abd al-Jabba¯r, the
otherbeingbyal-Na¯shi"al-Akbar. Thisissufficient justification forpre-
senting them in fresh editions with translations, and for situating them
in their intellectual contexts. But they also implicitly give a great deal
of information about relations between Muslims and Christians in this
period, about Christian efforts to defend and explain themselves in
Muslim milieus, and above all about Muslim attitudes towards Chris-
tianity at this time. So they are valuable social as well as theological
recordsthatdeservetobewidelyknownandstudied.
The effort to understand much of what is contained in the technical
language of these works is considerable, and the task of translating and
interpreting their details is often hard, and occasionally impossible.
Repeated readings can usually yield meaning, but in a few places
this remains locked away from even the keenest inquiry. Nevertheless,
the works reveal the liveliest minds engaged in defence of firmly-held
beliefs, attest to impressive intellects staunchly maintaining received
truth, and give hints of links with earlier works in the same genre. So
there are more than ample compensations forthe effort made to follow
theirarguments.
Asuccessionofpeoplehavehelpedinthewritingofthisbook,andit
is a pleasure to thank them, the Coptic monk who devoted a morning
to securing access to the manuscript of al-Na¯shi", the anonymous lady
who readily typed the Arabic, Rima Barsoum who checked it, Gordon
Hughes who assisted with German, and John Davies who smoothed
English style. They can, of course, take no responsibility for any mis-
takes that have undoubtedly escaped detection. That remains mine
alone.
DavidThomas
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2008030.Thomas.02_Chapter1.proef5.22-7-2008:17.02,page1.
chapter one
MUSLIM THEOLOGIANS AND
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES
By the beginning of the fourth/tenth century Islamic theology had
achieved a level of maturity which made it an admirably versatile
instrument for interpreting the ways in which God and the world
existed and related to one another. Muslim theologians active at this
timebroughttogetherthedisparatequestionsandissuesthathadoccu-
pied attention for more than a century into a unity of thought, and
produced the first works that can be called treatises of Islamic theology.
Ambitious in design and often prodigious in size, in their fully devel-
opedformtheseincludedtreatmentsofeverythingfromtheproblemof
knowledgeandthecontingentnatureoftheworldtomattersofindivid-
ual morality and the legitimate leadership of the Islamic state. Integral
to their treatment of the array of religious questions was the examina-
tion and refutation of other religions. The ways in which the various
authorsapproachedtheclaimstheyidentifiedfromnon-Muslimbeliev-
ers, and Christians in particular, tell a great deal about the authors’
regardforthematthistime,andevenmoreabouttheirregardfortheir
own intellectual discipline and the faith of which it was a subtle articu-
lation.
Christians in Islamic Society
By the turn of the fourth/tenth century Christians living under Islamic
rule had more or less come to terms with the situation in which they
found themselves. They might look back on times when there had
been no serious rivals to their claim to be the recipients of God’s
supreme and final disclosure to his creatures. But in the two and a
half centuries since Muslim armies had begun to wrest for themselves
tracts of Byzantine and Sasanian territory and established their own
rule, Christians had come to acknowledge the potency of Islam as a
faith as well as a polity, and the need to come to terms with it socially
andintellectually.