The A to Z of Medieval Philosophy and Theology by Stephen F. Brown & Juan Carlos Flores

Author:Stephen F. Brown & Juan Carlos Flores
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2007-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

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KALAM. In Arabic, kalam means literally “speech” or “word,” and may be used in a wide range of senses. In translations of Greek philosophical works, it often stands for logos, also in its various meanings (e.g., word, speech, reason, argument, account). Kalam later acquired the more specialized meaning of theology as the systematic study of revelation, which for Muslims is the Koran, revealed by God to the prophet and founder of Islam, Muhammad (d. 632). Kalam will be dealt with in this latter sense, which includes approaches to exegesis.

The systematic or theological approach to Scripture inevitably arose through the need to establish official Islamic doctrine by unifying seemingly incompatible Koranic passages, and through the need of Islam to define itself in the face of other traditions, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman culture. However, as readers sought to derive meaning from the Koran’s sacred wisdom, different theological approaches and formulations emerged. The question of free will versus predestination was one of the first to generate controversy, as evidenced by writings beginning at the end of the seventh century. Although philosophy or falsafah, grounded in natural reason, is a separate discipline, it was not uncommon for philosophy to be used, in varying ways and degrees, in Muslim theology. After the decline of philosophy as an independent pursuit in Islam, at the end of the 12th century, with the death of Averroes, it was primarily in kalam that Islamic philosophy lived on. The Mu’tazilite movement arose in the eighth century at Basrah, with Wasil ibn ‘Ata’ (d. 748/749). At Baghdad, it developed the first systematic theological school with the organizing assistance of philosophy. What the Mu’tazilites took to be certain fundamental tenets, especially divine unity and justice, they used as principles of deduction, interpretation, and, as in debates against the Christian dogma of the Trinity, polemics. For example, different qualities such as justice and knowledge, attributed to God by Koranic passages, had to be understood as somehow not impairing divine unity. Taking God’s justice (with its rewards and punishments) as a premise, room needed to be made for human freedom and responsibility, though always in harmony with the Koran’s descriptions of God’s complete control over all creation. In epistemology, metaphysics, and physics (as evidenced by their own theories of atoms), Mu’tazilites were apparently indebted to Greek philosophy. They viewed reason as an autonomous source of truth that could be used even to correct tradition; in fact, reason could even by itself lead one to believe in Allah.

The other major movement in kalam, the Asharites, was initiated by the former Mu’tazilite al-Ash’ari (d. 935), the “hammer of the Mu’tazilites,” after abandoning what he saw as their unorthodox views. This movement gained a wide influence, to the point of becoming identifiable with orthodoxy. The great al-Ghazali (d. 1111), also known as the “proof’ or “seal” of Islam, refined Asharite insights. The Asharites, like the Mu’tazilites, also employed philosophy when handling philosophical types of questions, but they differed from them both in terms of

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