Ebook Free Download | Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology | One cannot recommend this book because the scholarship is poor, being badly written and poorly referenced. This book is supposed to show how tenth century Muslims employed Christian doctrines to affirm their own Islamic theology but it is very selective in its use of evidence. This may be because the writer is dealing with the subject for which he is not really a scholar. The author has a good understanding of Christianity, but a poor understanding of Islam (which he tends to generalise into one homogenous identity which is very disappointing). Moreover, the reading of Islamic scholars is dated, cliched, and sometimes missing altogether. You get the feeling that he has only a one dimensional view of Islam. For example the outstanding research being done out of the Middle East, South East Asia is largely missing as he seems to focus on the West only.
The four key chapters are those concerning Al-Nashi' al-Akbar, Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, Abu Bakr al-Baqillani and Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad al-Hamadhani but there must be doubts about whether the author actually has anything like a balanced understanding of the tighter details. Citing their work is often appalling and in many cases the author takes statements out of context and misuses them. The chapter on Abu Mansur al-Maturidi is particularly short and felt a bit rushed and one wonders whether David Thomas has any ability to understand writings in Persian.
There's another review of this book on the Barnes Noble website that asks if a publication schedule meant that it wasn't researched properly. There might be some truth in that because it doesn't take a very good sweep of scholarship being done outside Europe. For sure, it incorporates analysis being done out of England (the writer is British and based at the University of Birmingham in the UK) but most of the really good stuff from the last few years is missing. I get the impression here are a bunch of older papers rushed together into one publication.
The first chapter on Muslem Theologians and Christian Doctrines is also really short at about 15 pages: just why such a big subject can be brushed away so quickly is very puzzling, and the chapter would be much improved with some more interaction with other works. Anyone thinking about reading this would be wise to check out some of the other book review of Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology which is not a book that is received well.
Ebook Free Download The four key chapters are those concerning Al-Nashi' al-Akbar, Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, Abu Bakr al-Baqillani and Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad al-Hamadhani but there must be doubts about whether the author actually has anything like a balanced understanding of the tighter details. Citing their work is often appalling and in many cases the author takes statements out of context and misuses them. The chapter on Abu Mansur al-Maturidi is particularly short and felt a bit rushed and one wonders whether David Thomas has any ability to understand writings in Persian.
There's another review of this book on the Barnes Noble website that asks if a publication schedule meant that it wasn't researched properly. There might be some truth in that because it doesn't take a very good sweep of scholarship being done outside Europe. For sure, it incorporates analysis being done out of England (the writer is British and based at the University of Birmingham in the UK) but most of the really good stuff from the last few years is missing. I get the impression here are a bunch of older papers rushed together into one publication.
The first chapter on Muslem Theologians and Christian Doctrines is also really short at about 15 pages: just why such a big subject can be brushed away so quickly is very puzzling, and the chapter would be much improved with some more interaction with other works. Anyone thinking about reading this would be wise to check out some of the other book review of Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology which is not a book that is received well.
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