The Unity of God as Unity in Species
Abu Ra’ita al-Takriti’s Trinitarian Apologetics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22353474 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Oleg Davydenkov (0000-0002-2149-931X, St.Tikhon's Orthodox University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 16 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-21 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Christianity in the Middle East (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2587-9316 • E-ISSN: 2949-3234 |
| Publisher | Palama Publishing (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.65324/cme014 |
| OpenAlex | W7139994410 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
One of the features of the theology of medieval Arab-Christian thinkers, which distinguishes these authors from their Greek predecessors, is that Arabic-speaking Christian theologians and apologists often preferred arguments based on various philosophical concepts to traditional arguments based on the Holy Scripture and Tradition. In the doctrine of the Trinity, this led to the emergence of a system of attributive Trinitarian teaching, to the use of the so-called intellectual analogy, to the use of some other ideas not found in the works of the Greek Fathers of the era of the Ecumenical Councils. Among such ideas, one can also include the idea of the unity of God as a unity in species (Israel of Kashkar, Abdallah ibn al-Fadl). To this day, the question of who introduced this idea into the context of Trinitarian discussions and when remains unclear. The first Arab-Christian author who discussed the possibility of defining God as one in species was the famous Syriac Jacobite theologian and philosopher Abu Ra’ita at-Takriti (first half of the 9th century). However, it remains unclear from his reasoning whether he himself accepted this point of view or not. Researchers on this issue are divided into two equal groups: some (G. Graf, B. Holmberg, T. Ricks, S. Noble) believe that Abu Ra’ita rejected the opinion about the unity of God in species, while others (S. Keating, S. L. Husseini, B. Ebied, V. Abdi), on the contrary, assert that this was precisely the position of at-Takriti. At the same time, none of the researchers tries to substantiate their opinion. The article attempts to analyze the argumentation of Abu Ra’ita from the point of view of the goals and method of his Trinitarian apologetics. Based on the study, it is concluded that the opinion about the unity of God in the species was not only shared by al-Takriti, but also played a significant role in his apologetic argumentation. This idea was necessary for the Syriac-Jacobite theologian in order to present the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as a kind of teaching about the Divine unity and to show, based on the philosophical positions shared by his opponents, that it is the Christian understanding of the unity of the Creator that is the most perfect
Apologetics · Attributive · Doctrine · Reflexive pronoun · Trinitarian theology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Medieval and Classical Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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