Christian and Muslim Theology as Represented by Al-Shahrastāni and St. Thomas Aquinas

So much attention has been concentrated on the doctrines on which Christians and Muslims differ that often it is not realized how closely their philosophical presuppositions agree on many matters. In the following pages, which form a brief comparison of Ash'arite theology as represented by al-Shahrastānī (d. 1153) in his Nihāyatu-l-Iqdām fī 'ilmi' l-kalām with Catholic theology as represented by St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) in his Summa contra Gentiles, an attempt is made to bring points of agreement into prominence.The Summa contra Gentiles possesses such enormous value in itself that the primary object of its composition has been lost sight of. Yet the connexion between it and Islam is indissoluble. It was written at the request of the Master-General of the Dominicans, Raymund of Pinnaforte, with the express purpose of convincing the Muslims of Spain of the rational basis of Christianity and the errors of their own religion. In the second chapter of the Summa (quae sit auctoris intentio) St. Thomas particularly singles out Muhammadans. Jews, he says, can be refuted from the Old Testament; heretics from the New Testament; but Machomestitae et Pagani can only be convinced by natural reason. And it is to natural reason that he proceeds to appeal.Though none was better equipped than St. Thomas to undertake an exposition of the Catholic Faith, it is, I think, clear that he felt himself at a disadvantage in writing against people whose books he could not read and of whom he knew only from the translations of others

Appeal · Art · Christianity · Epistemology · Exposition (narrative) · Faith · Islam · Literature · Natural (archaeology) · New Testament · Object (grammar) · Presupposition · Theology · Value (mathematics) · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Religious studies

• Islam and Christianity

  Damian Howard•Islam and Christian–Muslim…•2013

  Añadir item