U. of Virginia prof Robert Louis Wilken "Christianity Face to Face with Islam"


Adapted from his current article in "First Things" magazine, January 2009. Page 21.

"In greater Syria -- including the Holy Land, Egypt, and Iraq -- the rights and privileges of Christians were limited by their legal status as dhimmis: members of a restricted and inferior minority subject to an onerous tax.

"Still Christian intellectual life flourished.

"In the early centuries under Islam, Christians participated in the vigorous and enterprising culture being created by the Muslims.

"They gradually made the transition to Arabic -- a delicate undertaking, because much of the religious vocabulary in Arabic came from the Qur'an.

"They wrote apologetic work sin defense of Christianity and engaged in debate with Muslim thinkers on points of practice, doctrine and philosophy.

"Even a partial listing of Christian thinkers writing in Arabic during this period is impressive: theologians such as Theodore Abu - Qurrah (a bishop in Harran, in southeastern Turkey) and Timothy I (catholicos of the Church of the East in Baghdad), such translators as Anthony David of Baghdad and Stephen of Ramlah in Palestine, and such philosophers as Hunayn ibn Ishaq and Yahya ibn Adi in Baghdad.

"Though their names have been mostly forgotten, their writings have endured, offering a precious resource for Christians as they address Islam today ..."

TO BE CONTINUED!

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