Law, Justice, and Grace: Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) on the Gospel’s Relation to the Torah
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46586/er.13.2022.9466Keywords:
Gospel, Ibn Taymiyya, Law, Muslim anti-Christian polemics, Paul of Antioch, TorahAbstract
Early and medieval Muslim anti-Christian polemicists do not present a uniform account of the Gospel’s relation to the Torah, and polemical concerns drive the positions they adopt. This article focuses on how Damascene theologian Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) responds to a provocation originating in the Christian Paul of Antioch. Paul argues that God sent Moses the law of justice and Christ the perfect law of grace, implying that the Qurʾān is not needed, at least not for Christians. Drawing on Islamic legal categories and invoking Sufi theological ideas, Ibn Taymiyya counters that the Torah and the Gospel contain both justice as obligation and grace as recommendation, with obligation more prominent in the Torah and recommendation in the Gospel, as part of a prophetic history leading up to the Qurʾān, which contains both in perfect balance. With this, Ibn Taymiyya provides a more extensive and sophisticated account of the Torah-Gospel relation than his predecessors.Published
2022-02-11
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Copyright (c) 2022 Jon Hoover
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Law, Justice, and Grace: Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) on the Gospel’s Relation to the Torah. (2022). Entangled Religions, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.46586/er.13.2022.9466