Interreligiosity as a Realist Learning Engagement
Theodore Abu Qurrah and 'Ali b. Rabban al-Tabari-Two Comparative Theologians from Early Islam?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/32587Keywords:
Alī b. Rabbān al-Ṭabarī, Theodore abu QurrahAbstract
The comparative theologian, Francis X. Clooney, once opined that much recent comparative theology is done with Hinduism and Buddhism, and Islam is hardly gaining a proportionately sufficient attention in this scholarship. This essay aims at contributing to the attempt at filling-in the gap of doing comparative theology in relation to Islam. I pursue this task by studying fi al-Din wa-l-Dawlah (On Religion and State) by the Muslim 'Ali b. Rabban al-Tabari in comparative conversation with Maymar fi Wjud al-Khaliq wa-l-Din al-Qawym (Maymar on the Existence of the Creator and the Right Religion). by the Christian Theodore Abu Qurrah. It is my goal to shed comparative lights on Wa-l-Din al-Qawim and Al-Din wa-l-Dawlah by observing similarities and differences with regard to the following: the method of verification; the criterion of credibility acknowledged by each; and the telos of verification they seek. Toward the end of the comparison, I reflect briefly on whether or not Abu Qurrah and al-Tabari could be considered comparative theologians of the early Islam/middle Byzantine era and, if so, what kind of "comparative theology" are they presenting in their legacies?
References
Abu Qurrah, Theodore. 1982. Maymar fi Wjud al-Khaliq wa-l-Din al-Qawym (Maymar on the Existence of the Creator and the Right Religion). Edited by Ignace Dick Jounieh. Librairie St. Paul/Rome: Papal Oriental Institute.
Accad, Martin. 2003. "The Ultimate Proof-Text: The Interpretation of John 20:17 in Muslim-Christian Dialogue (Second/Eighth-Eighth/Fourteenth Centuries)." In Christians at the Heart of Islamic Rule: Church Life and Scholarship in Abbasid Iraq, edited by David Thomas, 199-214. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Awad, Najib George. 2017. "Min al-'Aql wa-Laysa min al-Kutub": Scriptural Evidence, Rational Verification and Theodore Abu Qurra's Apologetic Epistemology." In Exegetical Crossroads: Understanding Scripture in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Pre-Modern Orient, edited by George Tamer, Regina Grundmann, Assaad Elias Kattan, and Karl Pinggera, 95-118. Berlin: De Gruyter.
------. 2015. Orthodoxy in Arabic Terms: A Study of Theodore Abu Qurrah's theology in its Islamic Context, Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614513964
Clooney, Francis X. 2013. "Comparative Theology and Inter-Religious Dialogue." In The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille, 51-63. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118529911.ch4
------. 2010a. "Response," in The New Comparative Theology: Interreligious Insights from the Next Generation, edited by Francis X. Clooney, 191-200. London: T&T Clark/Continuum. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444318951
------. 2010b. Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444318951
Cook, Michael. 1980. "The Origins of Kalam." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43: 32-43
Frank, Richard M. 1999. "The Science of Kalam." Arabic Science and Philosophy. 2: 9-37.
Fredericks, James L. 1999. Faith among Faiths: Christian Theology and Non-Christian Religions. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist.
Fredericks, James L. 2010. "Introduction," The New Comparative Theology: Interreligious Insights from the Next Generation, edited by Francis X. Clooney, ix-xix. London: T&T Clark/Continuum.
Griffith, Sidney H. 2013. The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the 'People of the Book' in the Language of Islam, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400846580
------. 2008. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
------.1993. "Reflections on the Biography of Theodore Abu Qurrah." Parole de l'Orient 18: 143-170.
------. 1978. "The Controversial Theology of Theodore Abu Qurrah (c. 750-c. 820 AD): A Methodological, Comparative Study in Christian Arabic Literature." PhD. diss., Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.
Lamoreaux, John (trans). 2005. Theodore Abu Qurrah. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press.
Lamoreaux, John. 2002. "The Bibliography of Theodore Abu Qurrah Revisited," in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 56: 25-40. https://doi.org/10.2307/1291852
------. 2009. "Theodore Abu Qurrah." In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Volume 1 (600-900), edited by D. Thomas, Barbara Roggema, Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Mark Swanson, Herman Tuele, and John Tolan, 439-491. Leiden: Brill.
Pines, Shlomo. 1971. "A Note on An Early Meaning of the Term Mutakallim." Israel Oriental Studies 1: 224-240.
Swanson, Mark. 1998. "Beyond Prooftexting: Approaches to the Qur'an in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies." The Muslim World 88: 287-319. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-1913.1998.tb03663.x
Thomas, David. 2009. " 'Ali al-Tabari." In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Volume 1 (600-900), edited by D. Thomas, Barbara Roggema, Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Mark Swanson, Herman Tuele, and John Tolan, 669-674. Leiden: Brill.
Al-Tabari, 'Ali b. Rabban. 1982. Fi al-Din wa-l-Dawlah: fi Ithbat Nubuwat an-Nabi Muhammad (On Religion and State: On Verification of the Prophecies of Muhammad), edited by 'Adil Nuwayhid. Beirut: Da al-Afaq al-Jadidah.
Thomas, David and Rifaat Ebied (eds). 2016. The Polemical Works of Ali al-Tabari. Leiden: Brill.
Thomas, David. 2009. "Abu Zakkar yahya Ibn an-Nu'man." In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Volume 1 (600-900). edited by D. Thomas, Barbara Roggema, Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Mark Swanson, Herman Tuele, and John Tolan, 565-566. Leiden: Brill.
Treiger, Alexander. 2014. "Origins of Kalam." In The Oxford Handbooks: Handbook of Islamic Theology Online, edited by Sabine Schmidtke, 27-43. www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.001
van Ess, Josef. 1975. "The Beginnings of Islamic Theology." In The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning, edited by J. E. Murdoch and E.D. Sylla, 87-111. Dordrecht: Reidel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1781-7_4
------. 1976. "Disputationspraxis in der islamischen Theologie: Ein vorlaufige Skizze." Revue des etudes islamiques 44: 23-60.
------. 1982. "The Early Development of Kalam." In Studies on the First Century of Islamic Society, edited by G.H. A. Joynboll, 109-123. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Wolfson, Harry A. 1976. The Philosophy of Kalam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
