“Was Thomas Aquinas the premier Christian Apologist who answered the challenge of the Muslim Apologists in the Middle Ages?”
No one had ever asked me that question until two days ago. Here is the slightly-expanded answer I gave.
Yes.
Yes, he was.
While Aquinas was not a great expert on Islam, he wasn’t ignorant about it either. He received much of his information—probably the most relevant information—about the ideological threats coming from Muslim apologists and agitators through leaders of Dominican orders who were actually interacting with Muslim apologists/agitators. They were asking Aquinas for help, for answers, for an apologetic to the Muslim apologists. Aquinas also did have some legitimate familiarity with the writings of some Islamic philosophers like Avicenna, Algazel, Averroes, Avicebron, Alfraganus, Alpharabius, and Avempace. He often quotes them rather favorably or otherwise interacts with them on philosophical matters. It seems that all of the “five ways” (five proofs or arguments) that Aquinas is famous for in proving the existence of God all came from Muslim philosophers and were not original to him. Aquinas expected them to be perfectly acceptable to all monotheists naturally. Of course, the Muslim philosophers probably took the basic ideas from Aristotle and Aquinas while in Syria and Alexandria in their march across North Africa and then developed them (to their credit!) in a more theistic context than the Greeks. The relatively peaceful and temporary comingling of Muslim thinkers, Jewish thinkers, and Christian thinkers in universities in southern Spain, combined with the Medieval warming period (global warming can be a good thing for civilization, especially after a miniature Ice Age), caused a little renaissance in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. Aquinas was part of that renaissance.
In Summa Contra Gentiles, Aquinas admitted that he did not know much about Islam. But he still knew enough to reject it and give reasons to his fellow Dominicans (who were preaching in Muslim territories). Aquinas’s objections to the claim that Mohammad was a prophet were:
- Mohammad did not present any supernatural signs, wonders, and/or miracles as a witness to the divine inspiration of his prophetic revelation
- Mohammad claimed to be sent in the power of the sword/coercion, a “sign” that he has in common with robbers and tyrants
- Mohammad forbade Muslims to read the OT and NT
- Mohammad’s gospel appealed not to reason but to promises of carnal pleasure in this life and in the afterlife
Thomas then proceeds writes arguments that he thinks should appeal to the reason of Muslims and help convince them to accept the Bible and/or the Christian faith.
In a later book, Aquinas arms his fellow Dominican warriors with answers to various objections to the faith that the Muslims were bringing against several important doctrines of the Christian faith—the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion (or the necessity of vicarious, substitutionary blood atonement), and the idea that there can be any human liberty against a backdrop of divine predestination.
Aquinas’s first point (about lack of miracles) seems to be the strongest and most crucial point. The other points are really good too. But maybe we should all focus first and foremost on that first point. Think about it: anyone can claim to be a prophet. What if tomorrow I announced to the world that I’m the next prophet of God, hearing messages from God and superseding Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jesus, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, Baha Ullah, and all the other fifteen thousand self-proclaimed prophets out there? You’d be right to laugh. So how could I get anyone to take me seriously? There is really only one or two ways. I would either need to make some very detailed and improbable prophecies about the future which would have to come true and/or I would need to start doing some amazing things that overwhelm the laws of nature and require the power of God to do. It’d have to be something that humans obviously cannot do by themselves. If God sends a message to a mere mortal to spread among his or her peers, God needs to validate that messenger in some way. It would be insanity to believe in a messenger without multiple forms of miraculous validation. The messenger/prophet/apostle of God needs to be speaking/writing the words of God and performing the works of God. Moses set the bar very high some ~3,500 years ago. Jesus also raised the bar by raising from the dead. Jesus isn’t just a prophet. He is the messiah/moschiach/Christus/Christ, the anointed one—the ultimate king of kings, priest of priests, and prophet of prophets. Read up on him in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John for yourself if you haven’t recently. And ask yourself if he isn’t speaking the words of God and doing the works of God. He is also going to be the judge of all men (John 5:22, Acts 17:31).
Should we read Aquinas’s answer to Islam? Perhaps. But consider this Norm Geisler, one of the greatest evangelical and thomistic philosopher-theologians of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, follows Aquinas’ lead quite well on this miracle point. In fact, I’m going to say that he develops the point better than any other thinker I know of. Norm’s book and lectures on The Twelve Points that Show Christianity is True invests a lot of ink into comparing Mohammad with Jesus. It’s main point here, just like Aquinas’s main point, is that Moses and Elijah and Jesus and the Apostles were all validated as messengers of God by being given the witness of the sign-miracles of God and Mohammad has absolute-zero amount of such sign-miracle validation. That’s all over Norm’s points #5 (“Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God”), #8 (“Jesus’ claim to be God was confirmed by a unique set of miracles”), and #9 (“Jesus was supernaturally confirmed to be God in human flesh”). For those interested in the Christianity versus Islam debate, let’s not neglect the question of miraculous signs. I’m not inclined to insult any prophets. I just need some more proof than the miracle of “while illiterate I memorized words from an angel and wrote a beautiful sounding book.” The bar was raised really high 600 years before the Kaaba was cleansed of its idols and we’re supposed to believe in a guy who refused to even try to jump over the bar? Aquinas saw that well. Geisler saw that well. I can’t help but see it too.
Copyright © 2019 Christopher Travis Haun – All Rights Reserved
===== Sources of Facts or Inspiration =====
Norman Geisler, Twelve Points that Show Christianity is True (Bastion Books, 2013)
http://bastionbooks.com/12points/ (book)
https://ngim.thinkific.com/courses/12-points-that-prove-christianity-is-true (video lectures)
Norman Geisler, Miracles and the Modern Mind (Bastion Books, 2012) http://bastionbooks.com/miracles-and-the-modern-mind/
Norman Geisler, History of Western Philosophy, Vol. I: Ancient and Medieval (Bastion Books, 2012) http://bastionbooks.com/hop1/
Charles Homer Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Harvard University Press, 1971)
Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain
This is a fascinating two-hour documentary film about a short period of time when Muslim, Jewish, and Christian thinkers were allowed to co-exist together, learn from one another, and not try to kill one another. There may be some good lessons for the entire world to learn from this video. Of all the places to live during the middle ages, I just might have preferred to live in Muslim-ruled Cordova rather than any other town in Christendom. There was amazing tolerance
WHAT DID THOMAS AQUINAS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT ISLAM?
NOVEMBER 22, 2010 BILL PRATT
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/islam/thomas.htm
THOMAS AQUINAS, ISLAM, AND THE ARAB PHILOSOPHERS
By Joseph Kenny OP
Journal of Qur’anic Studies
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2015/12/27/thomas-aquinas-distrusted-islam/
Why Thomas Aquinas Distrusted Islam
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/islam/rationes.htm
REASONS FOR THE FAITH AGAINST MUSLIM OBJECTIONS (and one objection of the Greeks and Armenians)to the Cantor of Antioch
by Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P.
translated by Joseph Kenny, O.P.
Aquinas on Islam
Matthew Hanley
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2012
http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovery_of_Aristotle
https://www.bing.com/search?q=midieval%20warming%20period%20renaissance
