Kalam Islami

Kalam Islami

Examination of Orientalists' Views on the Origin of Theological Arguments and Debate Forms (with Emphasis on Critiquing the Views of Van Ess, Cook, Tannous, and Treiger)

Authors
1 University of Religions and Denominations
2 Shia Studies, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies. Qom University
3 Islamic Philosophy and Kalam, Theology and Islamic Studies, Qom University
Abstract
The issue of the "origin of theological arguments" is one of the topics of interest to Orientalists regarding Islamic theology. Some Orientalists argue that the argumentative patterns in Islamic theology are derived from Christian debates and influenced by external traditions. According to them, formal similarities between Christian and Islamic theological debates are considered evidence of direct influence on Muslims from those traditions. This study, aiming to critically evaluate these views, has reviewed their evidence and examined the validity of the arguments presented through a comparative analysis of early Islamic texts. The findings of this descriptive-analytical study indicate that their arguments suffer from serious flaws, including ignoring the role of innate rationality in forming similar structures, overlooking internal religious evidence such as prophetic debates, and incomplete induction based on limited and uncertain evidence. Accordingly, the article concludes that the similarities between Islamic and Christian traditions cannot be regarded as conclusive evidence of Islamic theology's dependence on external influences. Many of these similarities can be explained within the framework of shared revelatory or rational principles. Consequently, the claim of external influence on theological arguments lacks sufficient scholarly rigor.
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