Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
The Challenge of the Mosaic Torah in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2020) 228-254
Keywords:
ʻAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Asadābādī,
;
Abū Qurrah, Thāwdhūrus,
;
Judaism Influence
;
Christianity and other religions Judaism To 1500
;
History
;
Christianity and other religions Islam To 1500
;
History
;
Islam Relations
;
Christianity
Abstract:
One of the theological challenges generated by the advent of Islam was that Christians had to reconsider their relation to Torah from a completely new angle. Consequently, Torah has an important place in the argumentation of Theodore Abū Qurrah, the first Orthodox Church father to write in Arabic, as well as in the earliest work of Islamic counter-polemics, surviving in the name of ʿAbd al-Jabbār. For both authors, the role of Torah was a central argument in defending the superiority of one’s own religion. Christians and Muslims did share the approach that Torah is to be read in the light of the religion that represents the highest form of truth, and both authors highlighted the features that were in line with his own religion. Theodore Abū Qurrah stressed the continuity of Christianity and Judaism, as well as miracles of Moses and Jesus in contrast to Muhammad’s separateness and lack of miracles. Correspondingly, ʿAbd al-Jabbār focused on the commandments of Torah that were common with the Qurʾan and Islam, like circumcision, prohibition of pork and ritual purity. With the help of these, he aimed to show that Christianity was thoroughly corrupted. As a curious side effect, both came to stress continuity and conformity with Judaism more than they admitted elsewhere. The rhetorical styles of the two authors differ somewhat, and both have their inconveniencies. Abu Qurrah operates in curious tension. On the one hand, he tries to adjust himself to the Islamic patterns of thought and expression, which makes it somewhat difficult for him to express the fundamental ideas and attitudes of the Christian tradition; and on the other hand, at times he gives traditional Byzantine answers that do not really match with the Islamic questioning. ʿAbd al-Jabbār’s approach is characterised by extreme selectiveness, even by standards of polemical literature. His view on the history of early Christianity is not only an imbalanced construction but a determined distortion of the first Christian centuries.
DOI:
10.1163/9789004441996_013
URL:
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