Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1997 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

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24 PIM VALKENBERG in front of the Hellenistic purveyors of culture, for whom the meaningfulness of the Christian way of life had to be accounted for. These tasks gained such an importance that a group of Christian writers in the second century who wanted to defend the reasonableness of their faith, was aptly called 'the Apologists':". In the course of time, the apologetic writers opted for a synthesis of Christian faith with classical culture, especially (neo )Platonist philosophy. In this respect, Christian apologetics and Muslim kaläm began to develop the same procedures. There is some debate as to whether the Islamic science of kaläm, which flourished from the middle of the eighth until the fifteenth century A.D., originated from Christian sources or nor". In his impressive study on the philosophy of the kaläm, the Jewish scholar Harry Austryn Wolfson shows that the Church Fathers and the mutakallimün (those who practice kaläm) envisaged the same problem: how to "interpret Scripture in terms of philosophy and to revise philosophy in conformity with Scripture":". The word kalam literally means 'speech', or 'word', and it refers to a specific type of Islamic science, but Wolfson does not hesitate to speak about Christian and Jewish kaläm as well". He also shows how Jewish, Christian and Muslim authors influenced each others in dealing with issues such as the attributes (sifät) of God, the eternity of the Word of God, and predestination and free will. The most interesting thing, however, is 46 See Dulles, O.C., pp. 24-3l. 47 Whereas most of the older orientalists assumed a Christian origin for the kaläm, nowadays most scholars think that it developed independently in the beginning; it did not originate from Christian sources, but was later influenced by these sources. See T. Nagel, Geschichte der islamischen Theologie von Mohammed bis zur Gegenwart, München 1994, p. 279 note 46; M. Abdul Haleem, "Early kaläm', S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman (eds.), History of Islamic Philosophy, vol. I, pp. 71-88. Both refer to M. Cook, "The origins of Kaläm", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43 (1980) 32-43. 48 H.A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, Cambridge MA / London 1976, p. vii. 49 Wolfson, O.C., pp. 77-111; cp. also C. Sirat, A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Cambridge 1985, p. 15.
AQUINAS AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE 25 that Islamic kalàm bears a great resemblance to. Christian systematic theology, so that 'kaläm' is often translated as 'speculative theology' or 'philosophical theology' in the scholastic sense of this term". In the canon of Islamic sciences relating to God's revelation, kalàm differs from fiqh (the science of divine Law) because it uses human reasoning as much as possible in discussing the articles of faith". Because of this, many of the Hanbalite fuqahä' (experts of jurisprudence) strongly opposed kaläm because it trusted human 'aql or ratio and its dialectical arguments too much, and therefore failed in trusting God's revelation". The science of kaläm differs from falsafa (philosophy) as well, because it expressly deals with theological issues, while "the faläsifa were philosophers first and men of religion afterwards" 53. Being an endeavour to reflect on the contents of God's revelation by using one's powers of comprehension, Islamic kaläm is methodically quite akin to medieval scholastic theology. In a famous 'essay at comparative theology', Gardet and Anawati have shown these likenesses, both as to contents and as to methods". But, in comparison to the Christian writings of the Patristic era, the kaläm is characterized by its apologetic method: it tries to defend the religious convictions of the Muslims". A comparison between the methods of kaläm and of Christian scholastic theology yields the same results: while Christian systematic theology up to and including Thomas 50 M. Abdel Haleem, a.c., p. 71; W. Montgomery Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology: an Extended Survey, Edinburgh 1985, p. 37. 51. Wolfson, o.c., pA, with reference to the famous Muslim historiographer Ibn Khaldün. 52 L. Gardet, s.v. '''ilm al-kaläm", The Encyclopedia of Islam, new edition (= Er), Vol. ill, Leiden I London 1971, pp. 1141-1150, here 1149. One is tempted to draw a parallel between this Hanbalite critique and the objections brought forward against the dialectical methods of Peter Abelard by Bernard of Clairvaux. 53 Gardet, Er, ill, 1148, quoting Ahmad Amïn. 54 L. Gardet et M.-M. Anawati, Introduction à la théologie Musulmane: essai de théologie comparée (Études de philosophie médiévale, 37), Paris 1948. ss Gardet I Anawati, o.c., p. 211, p. 237.
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