Kalamopod

David Thomas, an emeritus professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham, is speaking to us about encounters between Islamic theologians and theologians of other faiths. He is giving us an insight into the attacks levelled by al-Baqillani, a 10th-century Islamic theologian, against Christian doctrines such as the Incarnation. David wrote a book entitled "Christian Doctrines in Islamic Theology" (Brill 2008)...

In this episode, we will look at how, in the wake of the expansion of the Islamic empire, Islamic theologians came into contact with adherents of other faiths. This propelled them to engage in interreligious debates and polemics. Sometimes they debated vigorously, seeking to expose what they considered inconsistencies and sheer absurdities in other faiths; and sometimes they approached adherents of other faiths with great interest and the wish to learn.....

In this episode, we will look at how Islamic theologians thought Muhammad's claims to prophethood could be vindicated. By a miracle, they asserted, like in the case of all prophets before Muhammad! But what exactly did Muhammad's miracle consist in? The theologians gave different answers...

Music by:

Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3...

In this episode, we will look at how Islamic theologians came to puzzle their heads over the many commandments and prohibtions which the Quran contains...

In this episode, we will look at how the mutakallimun argued God's attributes could be known. They agreed that God is not knowable as the physical world around us is, we cannot just look at God to know His attributes - so they employed a different method... And once they started to investigate the divine attributes, they had plenty of opportunity to dig ever deeper and ask more and more detailed questions!

Music by:
Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech...

In this episode, we will look at how the disagreement among Ash'arite and Mu'tazilite mutakallimun about human agency caused them to wonder whether the whole enterprise of kalam was at risk and would crumble like a house of cards. What was at stake was the effectiveness of a certain form of argument which many early mutakallimun frequently used to prove that the world was created by God: analogical reasoning...

In this episode, we will look at how the mutakallimun zoomed in on the central theological problem of God's role as creator of the world. They didn't simply affirm that God created the world at some point in the past and from nothing, but they wanted to affirm also that God was continously involved in creation. This led them to deny natural causality...

In this episode, we are looking at one of the trickiest theological problems which the practitioners of the science of kalam investigated. This is the proof that the world is created by God...

In this episode, we are looking at an epistle written by the 10th-century theologian, Abu'l-Hasan al-Ash'ari, and fittingly entitled "A Vindication of the Science of Kalam". Al-Ash'ari not only tells us about the arguments of the detractors of kalam, who despise it as "baleful innovation" - but he also tells us all the reasons why they are clearly wrong...

Music by:

Mystery Bazaar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3...

In this episode, we are looking at an inquisition (mihna) which the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun instigated in the year 833. One group of scholars, the muhaddithun, fell victim to the inquisition, while another group of scholars, the practitioners of kalam, benefited from it...