The Project Gutenberg EBook of Christianity and Islam, by C.H. Becker

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Title: Christianity and Islam

Author: C.H. Becker

Release Date: February 20, 2004 [EBook #11198]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM ***

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CHRISTIANITY

AND

ISLAM

BY

C.H. BECKER, PH.D.

PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL HISTORY IN THE COLONIAL INSTITUTE OF HAMBURG

TRANSLATED BY REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A.

HEADMASTER OF PLYMOUTH COLLEGE

1909

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The subject from different points of view: limits of treatment

The nature of the subject: the historical points of connection between
Christianity and Islam

A. Christianity and the rise of Islam:

1. Muhammed and his contemporaries

2. The influence of Christianity upon the development of Muhammed

3. Muhammed's knowledge of Christianity

4. The position of Christians under Muhammedanism

  B. The similarity of Christian and Muhammedan metaphysics during the
     middle ages:

     1. The means and direction by which Christian influence affected
        Islam

2. The penetration of daily life by the spirit of religion; asceticism, contradictions and influences affecting the development of a clerical class and the theory of marriage

     3. The theory of life in general with reference to the doctrine
        of immortality

     4. The attitude of religion towards the State, economic life,
        society, etc.

     5. The permanent importance to Islam of these influences: the
        doctrine of duties

6. Ritual

7. Mysticism and the worship of saints

8. Dogma and the development of scholasticism

C. The influence of Islam upon Christianity:

The manner in which this influence operated, and the explanation of the superiority of Islam

The influence of Muhammedan philosophy

The new world of European Christendom and the modern East

Conclusion. The historical growth of religion

Bibliography

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

A comparison of Christianity with Muhammedanism or with any other religion must be preceded by a statement of the objects with which such comparison is undertaken, for the possibilities which lie in this direction are numerous. The missionary, for instance, may consider that a knowledge of the similarities of these religions would increase the efficacy of his proselytising work: his purpose would thus be wholly practical. The ecclesiastically minded Christian, already convinced of the superiority of his own religion, will be chiefly anxious to secure scientific proof of the fact: the study of comparative religion from this point of view was once a popular branch of apologetics and is by no means out of favour at the present day. Again, the inquirer whose historical perspective is undisturbed by ecclesiastical considerations, will approach the subject with somewhat different interests. He will expect the comparison to provide him with a clear view of the influence which Christianity has exerted upon other religions or has itself received from them: or he may hope by comparing the general development of special religious systems to gain a clearer insight into the growth of Christianity. Hence the object of such comparisons is to trace the course of analogous developments and the interaction of influence and so to increase the knowledge of religion in general or of our own religion in particular.

A world-religion, such as Christianity, is a highly complex structure and the evolution of such a system of belief is best understood by examining a religion to which we have not been bound by a thousand ties from the earliest days of our lives. If we take an alien religion as our subject of investigation, we shall not shrink from the consequences of the historical method: whereas, when we criticise Christianity, we are often unable to see the falsity of the pre-suppositions which we necessarily bring to the task of inquiry: our minds follow the doctrines of Christianity, even as our bodies perform their functions—in complete unconsciousness. At the same time we possess a very considerable knowledge of the development of Christianity, and this we owe largely to the help of analogy. Especially instructive is the comparison between Christianity and Buddhism. No less interesting are the discoveries to be attained by an inquiry into the development of Muhammedanism: here we can see the growth of tradition proceeding in the full light of historical criticism. We see the plain man, Muhammed, expressly declaring in the Qoran that he cannot perform miracles, yet gradually becoming a miracle worker and indeed the greatest of his class: he professes to be nothing more than a mortal man: he becomes the chief mediator between man and God. The scanty memorials of the man become voluminous biographies of the saint and increase from generation to generation.

Yet more remarkable is the fact that his utterances, his logia, if we may use the term, some few of which are certainly genuine, increase from year to year and form a large collection which is critically sifted and expounded. The aspirations of mankind attribute to him such words of the New Testament and of Greek philosophers as were especially popular or seemed worthy of Muhammed; the teaching also of the new ecclesiastical schools was invariably expressed in the form of proverbial utterances attributed to Muhammed, and these are now without exception regarded as authentic by the modern Moslem. In this way opinions often contradictory are covered by Muhummed's authority.

The traditions concerning Jesus offer an analogy. Our Gospels, for instance, relate the beautiful story of the plucking of the ears of corn on the Sabbath, with its famous moral application, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." A Christian papyrus has been discovered which represents Jesus as explaining the sanctity of the Sabbath from the Judaeo-Christian point of view. "If ye keep not the Sabbath holy, ye shall not see the Father," is the statement in an uncanonical Gospel. In early Christian literature, contradictory sayings of Jesus are also to be found. Doubtless here, as in Muhammedan tradition, the problem originally was, what is to be my action in this or that question of practical life: answer is given in accordance with the religious attitude of the inquirer and Jesus and Muhammed are made to lend their authority to the teaching. Traditional literary form is then