Warraq & al-Jabbar

In reading Warraq and the information on Abd al-Jabbar, I was intrigued by the style of argument, as well as issues raised by Abd al-Jabbar. In reading Warraq, I found it interesting to read the back and forth style of argumentation that we talked about previously, but when I read it this time, I found that the process of playing oration games seemed to cheapen the legitimacy of the arguments. When critiquing Christian beliefs, it seems as if Warraq was simply attempting to get the Christians to fall into a logic trap; furthermore, what made this approach lose its validity was its lack of a correct understanding of the topic at hand (i.e. hypostasis, persons of the Trinity, etc.). Rather, Warraq critiques what he understands such topics to be.

I also found the fundamental critique of Christianity by Abd al-Jabbar a clever way of preserving Jesus’ status as prophet while denying the legitimacy of Christianity and the Church. al-Jabbar states that Christians made the mistake of worshipping Christ rather than worshipping like him. He makes Jesus who he wants Him to be, in a way which fits into Islam. However, I found the reasoning behind his stance poorly formed.