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- The Problem of Theological Language as the Major Factor in the Making of Medieval Islamic Thought
The Problem of Theological Language as the Major Factor in the Making of Medieval Islamic Thought
Authors : Rahim Acar
Pages : 88-110
View : 29 | Download : 33
Publication Date : 2024-01-14
Article Type : Research
Abstract :In this article, I am going to argue that one should pay attention to the problem of theological language to have a proper understanding of the debates concerning specific philosophical-theological issues. This is, because the conception of theological language played an important role in the formation and development of major theological-intellectual groups in the medieval Islamic thought. Historians belonging to the medieval Islamic thought sometimes classify real or virtual groups, such as Isqāfiyya and Thumāmiyya according to the names of the leaders of those groups. However, taking the conception of theological language as the criterion to classify different groups may enhance and facilitate to understand specific theological problems and what was at stake thereof. One may conceive the emergence of different theological-intellectual groups in the classical Islam thought as a dialectical process of mutual interaction. In this dialectical process of mutual interaction, the emergence of Muʿaṭṭila, Mushabbiha, Salafiyya may represent the first phase of the formative period. The emergence and formation of other theological schools and falāsifa may be considered as a result of the revision of the earlier positions regarding the nature of theological language. The dialectical process of mutual interaction seems to have resulted in either the refinement of the basic tenets of a group, or the emergence of a new one. The problem of theological language, i.e., proper understanding of the statements about God in religious sources, seems to function as the ground, on which one’s approach to many specific theological problems took shape. To clarify this function of the problem of theological language, in the development of the classical Islamic thought, I am going to provide, at first, a general picture of theological-intellectual groups with regard to their conception of theological language. Afterwards, I am going to look at some theological debates as example cases. I am going try to show how debates regarding specific theological problems may be closely related to a certain conception of theological language. Thus I hope to highlight that taking the conception of theological language, assumed by warring parties, into account, provides a better understanding of the rival positions regarding specific theological problems.Keywords : Teolojik Dil, Mu’attıla, Müşebbihe, Selefiyye, Mu’tezile, Eş’ariyye