Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes

Mehmet Karabela

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000369847
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Europäische Geschichte

Early modern Protestant scholars closely engaged with Islamic thought in more ways than is usually recognized. Among Protestants, Lutheran scholars distinguished themselves as the most invested in the study of Islam and Muslim culture. Mehmet Karabela brings the neglected voices of post-Reformation theologians, primarily German Lutherans, into focus and reveals their rigorous engagement with Islamic thought. Inspired by a global history approach to religious thought, Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes offers new sources to broaden the conventional interpretation of the Reformation beyond a solely European Christian phenomenon.

Based on previously unstudied dissertations, disputations, and academic works written in Latin in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Karabela analyzes three themes: Islam as theology and religion; Islamic philosophy and liberal arts; and Muslim sects (Sunni and Shi'a). This book provides analyses and translations of the Latin texts as well as brief biographies of the authors.

These texts offer insight into the Protestant perception of Islamic thought for scholars of religious studies and Islamic studies as well as for general readers. Examining the influence of Islamic thought on the construction of the Protestant identity after the Reformation helps us to understand the role of Islam in the evolution of Christianity.

Part I
Post-Reformation Protestant Uses of Islam

When Martin Luther wrote his ninety-five theses in 1517, he unintentionally set off the chain of events that led to the Reformation. His original aim was not to establish a new religion; rather, he expected to spark an intellectual debate with his fellow Wittenberg scholars on issues he was having with the Catholic Church. As a devout Catholic, Luther did not expect to divide Christianity or to be branded a heretic; he hoped to reform the Church from within. However, due to the intransigent response from the Pope and Luther’s excommunication by the Church of Rome, he and his followers developed a separate religious identity over time. This religion came to be called Protestantism, with new churches emerging, such as the Evangelical in Germany and the Reformed (Calvinist) in Switzerland. After Luther’s death, Lutheran theologians further struggled to differentiate their new identity from Catholicism and intra-Protestant movements.¹

These developments did not, however, take place in isolation from other religious traditions, especially Islam. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this new Protestant identity was further defined by Lutheran scholars’ engagement with Islamic thought. Despite this, many previous commentators on cultural and intellectual history interpret the Reformation and post-Reformation² as a uniquely Protestant-Catholic schism and intra-Christian confessional divisions.³ There has been little emphasis on how post-Reformation Protestant thinkers engaged with Islam and used it as a foil to differentiate themselves from Catholics.⁴

On the following page (Figure 0.1),⁵ the seventeenth-century anti- Catholic and anti-Muslim illustration in Lutheran theologian Johann Ulrich Wallich’s book shows the mirrored imagery of both: the papal crown hovering above an altar, encircled by two fire-breathing serpents that are covered in frogs, lizards, insects, and scorpions. Over the heads of the two serpents is a large object resembling a turban, meant to be that of the Ottoman Sultan. Between the turban and the crown are the words “They are joined into a circle,” implying an equivalency between Islam and Catholicism. On the altar are the words “Lest [they come] too close,” and on either side are tall trees with banners draped around them. The banner on the left reads “unequal agreement in matters of fate,” while the other reads “each of you either kill or shun!” When the phrases are considered together, they warn about the pernicious influence of Islam and Catholicism: “They are joined into a circle. Lest unequal agreement in matters of fate [i.e., religion] come too close, every one of you either kill or shun [the infidel]!” The satanic depiction of the headdresses of the Sultan and Pope draws an equivalency between Islam and Catholicism, the serpents symbolizing both as evil. The Protestant reader, as he or she delves into an account of the exotic heresy of the Turks,⁶ is thereby encouraged to draw parallels with the superstitions and heresies of the Catholic Church.

Figure 0.1 The Papal Crown and the Turban of the Ottoman Sultan, “They [Pope and Sultan] are joined into a circle” (Courtesy of the Bavarian State Library, Munich).

Although Protestant theologians and scholars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries closely engaged with Islamic thought, modern historians of religion have primarily focused on the Protestant-Catholic divide as the critical chapter in the history of Christianity.⁷ This approach resulted in their seeing the Reformation and its aftermath as a European Christian phenomenon, isolated from other religious thought, including Islam.⁸ Therefore, this book addresses this gap by exploring the engagement of post-Reformation scholars with Islamic thought, as well as Protestant disruptions with Catholicism and Judaism, using unpublished dissertations and academic works of Protestant scholars—primarily Lutheran theologians—from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Islam and the life of Muhammad played a crucial role in the evolution of Christianity and religious thought in Europe.⁹ While some Catholic theologians denigrated religious movements inspired by the Reformation, such as Socinianism and Unitarianism,¹⁰ by comparing them with Islam, some Protestant theologians asserted the superiority of Islam over Catholicism. If Muhammad was the anti-Christ, then so was the Pope in the eyes of Protestants. To a lesser extent, Catholics also used Muhammad and Islam to denigrate Protestants, likening Luther to Muhammad and Calvinism to Muslim heresy. Furthermore, Protestant scholars also compared Islam to Judaism in order to strengthen their new religious identity.¹¹ Conversely, some Jews also used Islam against Christianity. For example, in his critique of Christianity, Venetian Rabbi Leon Modena (d.1648) presented Islam in a positive light by using a translation of the Qur’an and likened Islam to Rabbinic Judaism.¹²

Framing the Post-Reformation Study of Islam

The institutional and social shifts of the Reformation from Catholicism as well as encounters with non-Christian communities, especially Muslims and Jews,¹³ provided the context for redefining the nature of religion by Protestant theologians and academics in European universities.¹⁴ Among Protestants, Lutheran scholars distinguished themselves as the most invested in the study of Islam and Muslim culture. However, all Lutheran institutions were not the same in terms of their focus on Islam. For example, at University of Wittenberg, the center of Lutheran orthodoxy, scholars, influenced by their belief in Sola Scriptura, focused on the Qur’an as the basis of Islamic theology, and were not particularly interested in converting Muslims to Christianity. At the University of Halle, the center of Lutheran Pietism, the focus was on Islamic morality and religious conversion because they valued the individual experience with God. Theologians at Helmstedt, the center of ecumenism, as exemplified by Georg Calixt and the Syncretic Controversy, were interested in converting Muslims using universally accepted Christian beliefs, rather than confusing the catechumen with Protestant doctrinal differences.¹⁵ Although there are exceptions, the Protestant denomination that prevailed at the university influenced the way scholars approached Islamic thought in their works. The map of Protestant universities in the seventeenth century shows the three major Protestant faith communities (Map 0.1).

Map 0.1 Protestant Universities in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.

Protestant academic works, specifically dissertationes, disputationes, exercitationes, orationes, and disquisitiones, give us an overview of the research and teaching in early modern Protestant academies and universities. These sources are a window into the ways Protestant scholars reinterpreted Islamic sources for their university students and teaching candidates in theology, philosophy, and literature. There are many unstudied dissertations on Islam, the Qur’an, and Muhammad in European university archives.¹⁶ In German universities alone, there are more than a hundred thousand dissertationes and disputationes on almost all aspects of social sciences and the humanities.¹⁷ A considerable number of these Lutheran works are concerned with Qur’anic studies, Islamic theology, the concept of predestination, the Sunni and Shi‘ite schism, Islamic morality, Turkish politics, Arabic literature, and the state of learning among the Arabs.

This is not to suggest that only Lutheran theologians and academics contributed to this new study of Islam, but rather that they produced more in-depth works on Islam and gave it more attention than other Christians (i.e., Roman Catholics, Socinians,¹⁸ Church of England scholars, ¹⁹ Calvinists,²⁰ Anabaptists,²¹ and Quakers²²). As Alastair Hamilton shows, German Lutherans in the early modern period studied Arabic and Islam, and produced more work in both quantity and quality on Islamic studies than their Catholic counterparts.²³ A possible explanation for German Lutheran interest in Islam lies in the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe as well as the collapse of the relative religious unity of Christianity that occurred during the Reformation and after the Thirty Years’ War. The dispute between Catholics and Protestants in a religiously divided Europe opened the way for Islam to become a field of battle.²⁴ Lutherans, in particular, seized on Islam as a weapon against Catholicism. To a lesser extent, they also used Islam to critique intra-Protestant divisions, such as the Pietist movement, the Syncretic movement, and the Reformed Church.

The majority of Protestant authors selected for this work are German-speaking Lutherans who wrote their academic works (dissertationes or disputationes) and delivered their speeches (orationes) in Latin at major Protestant universities, such as Wittenberg, Leipzig, Helmstedt, Halle, Jena, and Danzig. However, these scholars should not be seen as homogenously Lutheran as the Reformation had neither a straightforward nor a consistent trajectory. For example, after Luther’s death, Lutheran theologians became divided between Philipists, who were followers of Philipp Melanchthon (d.1560), and Gnesio-Lutherans, who opposed the Philipists on a number of theological matters, including justification, human participation in salvation, and problem solving that which was not prescribed in the scripture. Furthermore, after this short-lived initial split, Lutheran theologians divided into further groups: Orthodox Lutherans, Calixtinians, and Pietists. Orthodox Lutherans focused on understanding the true faith based on the scripture alone (Sola Scriptura), which resulted in an overly intellectualized form of Christianity.²⁵ Orthodox Lutherans defended their faith against not only Catholics, but also non-Lutheran intra-Protestant groups. This was the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Maps
• Acknowledgments
• Part I Post-Reformation Protestant Uses of Islam
• Part II Religion and Theology
• Part III Philosophy and Liberal Arts
• Part IV Muslim Sects: Sunni and Shi‘a
• Selected Post-Reformation Works on Islamic Thought
• Glossary of Terms
• Bibliography
• Index