I found Griffith’s article quite insightful, as I knew little about this topic. What I found most interesting was the problem of the Islamization of Arabic and the attempt to use those same words to apply to Christianity. Certainly, we recognize that language is limited when we speak about God, who remains unable to be fully captured by words. But how is one to communicate with another when the words already carry the weight of another religion? It seems that in the case of the Trinity, which Griffith notes in the section Responses to the Qu’rān, the words Christian apologists attempt to use already carry a Qur’anic distinction, which leads to a misunderstanding of the Trinity. In this position, is the Christian apologist encouraged to use a different word entirely or to try and reclaim the word as it is currently used in that culture?
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Islam & Christian-Muslim Relations, Hamaty 
This is an important element of the question of how the encounter with Islam shaped Trinitarian theology. I wonder if we might identify a parallel in the Latin translation of the Nicene language. The Greek “hypostasis” would translate into Latin as “substantia.” But because of the connotations attached to that word in Latin philosophical vocabulary, Western trinitarian theologians spoke of three “personae” instead of three “substantiae.” I wonder, though, if the Arabic theological and philosophical vocabulary had been so Islamized, whether this was even possible.
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Andrew, thanks for your thoughts here. I was struck by how Arabic Christian theology demonstrates the conjoint workings of form and content and their complications. As you point out, language is more than just the neutral carrier of content but has different connotations and its own shaping force. Maybe this is one reason why the apologetic genre was so popular– it also included the subtle transmission of attitudes and moods.
–Stephanie
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Thank you for this great conversation. I was also intrigued by the extent to which the interreligious environment can shape or influence the theological categories used to express certain core doctrines in a particular context. See you soon.
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