Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology.

• Author: Griffith, Sidney H.
• Position: History of Christian-Muslim Relations, vol. 10 - Book review

Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology. Edited and translated by DAVID THOMAS, History of Christian-Muslim Relations, vol. 10. Leiden: BRILL, 2008. Pp. viii + 392. $199.

During the last few years David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham. U.K., has been searching out the passages in the works of early Muslim thinkers, mostly mutakallimun, in which the authors discuss the Christians and their beliefs, excerpting these passages, translating them into English, and annotating the translations in the light of current scholarship, in most instances he has not been content with the published editions of the texts but has also consulted the manuscripts on which they are based, and in not a few instances he has offered improved readings or clarified obscure passages, thereby presenting a more critical text. In the same manner Thomas had earlier excerpted substantial quotations from the ninth-century scholar Abu Isa al-Warraq's discussions of the Christians and their doctrines, from the Christian Yahya ibn 'Adi's refutations of them as preserved by a thirteenth-century Coptic scholar, the only form in which Abu 'Isa's accounts have survived.

In the present volume, after a general and very insightful discussion of Muslim theologians and their treatment of Christian doctrines, and employing his by now customary methodology, Thomas offers the texts and translations of the passages concerning Christians from the works of four early Muslim authors: al-Nashi al-Akbar, Abu Mansur al Maturidi, Abu Bakr al-Baqillani, and Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad al-Hamadhani. In each instance there is a substantial introduction to the author and his works as well as a detailed outline of the work from which the passage on the Christians and their doctrines is excerpted, including a discussion of how the passage fits into a given author's work as a whole. Texts and translations are provided on facing pages and the volume is complete with a bibliography, a table of Biblical and Qur'anic citations, and an index to topics and proper names.

Several questions immediately arise. The first of them is, why excerpt these passages and take them out of their contexts in the works in which they appear and of which they are an integral part? This question is particularly pertinent in regard to the excerpts from the works of al-Maturidi, al-Baqillani, and 'Abd al-Jabbar, mutakallimun whose full texts are available in modern printed editions. As for...