When Christians First Met Muslims

When Christians First Met Muslims PDF

Author: Michael Philip Penn

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2015-03-21

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 0520960572

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The first Christians to meet Muslims were not Latin-speaking Christians from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speaking Christians from Constantinople but rather Christians from northern Mesopotamia who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Living under Muslim rule from the seventh century to the present, Syriac Christians wrote the first and most extensive accounts of Islam, describing a complicated set of religious and cultural exchanges not reducible to the solely antagonistic. Through its critical introductions and new translations of this invaluable historical material, When Christians First Met Muslims allows scholars, students, and the general public to explore the earliest interactions between what eventually became the world’s two largest religions, shedding new light on Islamic history and Christian-Muslim relations.

Envisioning Islam

Envisioning Islam PDF

Author: Michael Philip Penn

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2015-06-05

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 0812291441

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The first Christians to encounter Islam were not Latin-speakers from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speakers from Constantinople but Mesopotamian Christians who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Under Muslim rule from the seventh century onward, Syriac Christians wrote the most extensive descriptions extant of early Islam. Seldom translated and often omitted from modern historical reconstructions, this vast body of texts reveals a complicated and evolving range of religious and cultural exchanges that took place from the seventh to the ninth century. The first book-length analysis of these earliest encounters, Envisioning Islam highlights the ways these neglected texts challenge the modern scholarly narrative of early Muslim conquests, rulers, and religious practice. Examining Syriac sources including letters, theological tracts, scientific treatises, and histories, Michael Philip Penn reveals a culture of substantial interreligious interaction in which the categorical boundaries between Christianity and Islam were more ambiguous than distinct. The diversity of ancient Syriac images of Islam, he demonstrates, revolutionizes our understanding of the early Islamic world and challenges widespread cultural assumptions about the history of exclusively hostile Christian-Muslim relations.

Meeting Islam

Meeting Islam PDF

Author: George Dardess

Publisher: Paraclete Press (MA)

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13:

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Islam's key facts, chief concepts, and practices are shared through the author's own failings and successes in a guide that explores the rewards and dangers of venturing outside the boundaries of one's faith. Original.

Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam

Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam PDF

Author: Robert G. Hoyland

Publisher: eBooks2go, Inc.

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 637

ISBN-13: 1618131311

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This book offers a new approach to the vexing question of how to write the early history of Islam. The first part discusses the nature of the Muslim and non-Muslim source material for the seventh- and eighth-century Middle East and argues that by lessening the divide between these two traditions, which has largely been erected by modern scholarship, we can come to a better appreciation of this crucial period. The second part gives a detailed survey of sources and an analysis of some 120 non-Muslim texts, all of which provide information about the first century and a half of Islam (roughly A.D. 620-780). The third part furnishes examples, according to the approach suggested in the first part and with the material presented in the second part, how one might write the history of this time. The fourth part takes the form of excurses on various topics, such as the process of Islamization, the phenomenon of conversion to Islam, the development of techniques for determining the direction of prayer, and the conquest of Egypt. Because this work views Islamic history with the aid of non-Muslim texts and assesses the latter in the light of Muslim writings, it will be essential reading for historians of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism--indeed, for all those with an interest in cultures of the eastern Mediterranean in its traditional phase from Late Antiquity to medieval times.

The Islamic Jesus

The Islamic Jesus PDF

Author: Mustafa Akyol

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2017-02-14

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1250088704

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“A welcome expansion of the fragile territory known as common ground.” —The New York Times When Reza Aslan’s bestseller Zealot came out in 2013, there was criticism that he hadn’t addressed his Muslim faith while writing the origin story of Christianity. In fact, Ross Douthat of The New York Times wrote that “if Aslan had actually written in defense of the Islamic view of Jesus, that would have been something provocative and new.” Mustafa Akyol’s The Islamic Jesus is that book. The Islamic Jesus reveals startling new truths about Islam in the context of the first Muslims and the early origins of Christianity. Muslims and the first Christians—the Jewish followers of Jesus—saw Jesus as not divine but rather as a prophet and human Messiah and that salvation comes from faith and good works, not merely as faith, as Christians would later emphasize. What Akyol seeks to reveal are how these core beliefs of Jewish Christianity, which got lost in history as a heresy, emerged in a new religion born in 7th Arabia: Islam. Akyol exposes this extraordinary historical connection between Judaism, Jewish Christianity and Islam—a major mystery unexplored by academia. From Jesus’ Jewish followers to the Nazarenes and Ebionites to the Qu’ran’s stories of Mary and Jesus, The Islamic Jesus will reveal links between religions that seem so contrary today. It will also call on Muslims to discover their own Jesus, at a time when they are troubled by their own Pharisees and Zealots.

Muslims Ask, Christians Answer

Muslims Ask, Christians Answer PDF

Author: Christian W. Troll

Publisher: New City Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 1565484304

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This volume addresses 12 important questions that Muslims ask of Christians and explains their wider background in Muslim religious thought. From the perspective of Christian faith and theology and from that of dialogue with Muslims, the Christian positions are clarified, and sensitive, honest proposals are made for responding to the questions. Both Christians and Muslims have found Trolls work a precious help for orientation and a solid basis for interreligious encounter and dialogue.

Muhammad Reconsidered

Muhammad Reconsidered PDF

Author: Anna Bonta Moreland

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess

Published: 2020-03-30

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 0268107270

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Muhammad Reconsidered rectifies the failures of scholarly attempts to understand Islam in the West and to take Islamic theology seriously. Engaging Islam from deep within the Christian tradition by addressing the question of the prophethood of Muhammad, Anna Bonta Moreland calls for a retrieval of Thomistic thought on prophecy. Without either appropriating the prophet as an unwitting Christian or reducing both Christianity and Islam to a common denominator, Moreland studies Muhammad within a Christian theology of revelation. This lens leads to a more sophisticated understanding of Islam, one that honors the integrity of the Catholic tradition and argues for the possibility in principle of Muhammad as a religious prophet. Moreland sets the stage for this inquiry through an intertextual reading of the key Vatican II documents on Islam and on Christian revelation. She then uses Aquinas's treatment of prophecy to address the case of whether Muhammad is a prophet in Christian terms. Muhammad Reconsidered examines the work of several Christian theologians, including W. Montgomery Watt, Hans Küng, Kenneth Cragg, David Kerr, and Jacques Jomier, O.P., and then draws upon the practice of analogical reasoning in the theology of religious pluralism to show that a term in one religion—in this case “prophecy”—can have purchase in another religious tradition. Muhammad Reconsidered not only is a constructive contribution to Catholic theology but also has enormous potential to help scholars reframe and comprehend Christian-Muslim relations.

Christian Lives Given to the Study of Islam

Christian Lives Given to the Study of Islam PDF

Author: Christian W. Troll

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2012-09-12

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0823243192

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A collection of 28 articles by Christian students of Islam, each with several decades of experience. They address motivation, methodologies, spiritual and intellectual nourishment, achievements and personal reflections. They come from many Christian churches and nationalities and bring a worldwide perspective to the subject. A unique record of a unique generation.

On Islam

On Islam PDF

Author: Abraham Kuyper

Publisher: Abraham Kuyper Collected Works

Published: 2018-01-17

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781577996743

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, famed theologian Abraham Kuyper toured the Mediterranean world and encountered Islam for the first time. Part travelogue, part cultural critique, On Islam presents a European imperialist seeing firsthand the damage colonialism had caused and the value of a religion he had never truly understood. Here, Kuyper's doctrine of common grace shines as he displays a nuanced and respectful understanding of the Muslim world. Though an ardent Calvinist, Kuyper still knew that God's grace is expressed to unbelievers. Kuyper saw Islam as a culture and religion with much to offer the West, but also as a threat to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here he expresses a balanced view of early twentieth-century Islam that demands attention from the majority world today as well. Essays by prominent scholars bookend the volume, showing the relevance of these teachings in our time.

Invitation to Syriac Christianity

Invitation to Syriac Christianity PDF

Author: Michael Philip Penn

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2022-02-22

Total Pages: 461

ISBN-13: 0520299205

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Introduction -- Origin stories -- Poetry -- Doctrine and disputation -- Liturgy -- Asceticism -- Mysticism and prayer -- Biblical interpretation -- Hagiography -- Books, knowledge, and translation -- Judaism -- Islam -- Religions of the Silk Road -- Appendix 1 : translations and editions -- Appendix 2 : biographies of named authors -- Appendix 3 : glossary.