Anti-Christian Polemic in Early Islam
Abu 'Isa al-Warraq's Against the Trinity is the longest sustained attack on the Trinity to survive from the early centuries of Islam, and is a key work in the history of the early relations between Islam and Christianity. It contains refutations of the arguments and explanations represented by the Nestorians, Melkites and Jacobites, and comprises the first part of an attack on the major Christian doctrines. It was composed during the early ninth century, and is the only known extant work of the Shi'ite scholar Abu 'Isa al-Warraq. Although his ideas met with scepticism and rejection his works were widely influential in the centuries after his death. David Thomas presents the Arabic text of this treatise, with a facing English translation. In the introduction he shows how the work is both more profound and better researched than other contemporary attacks and traces its influence upon later polemical works. He also draws together details of Abu 'Isa's life and thought from the works of contemporary writers and attempts to give an impression of what the author was trying to achieve in his teachings.
Product details
February 1992Hardback
9780521412445
228 pages
237 × 157 × 18 mm
0.47kg
Unavailable - out of print October 2002
Table of Contents
- Preface INTRODUCTION 1. Early Islamic theological investigations 2. Abu Isa's life and thought 3. Early Islamic refutations of Christianity 4. The structure and contents of Abu Isa's Radd ala al-Nasara THE REFUTATION OF THE TRINITY THE FIRST PART OF THE REFUTATION OF THE THREE CHRISTIAN SECTS The teachings of the Christian sects The question of the relationship between the substance and hypostases The question of the substance as one and the hypostases as three The question of the different characteristics of the hypostases Notes Bibliography