Prophetic work
Sir: C. M. Woodhouse, in his review of Sir John Glubb's recent book on Muhammad (28 March) said that although 'Islam has always acknowledged its continuity with both Judaism and Christianity . . s that acknowledgment has rarely been recipro- cated.' I think, from the Christian side, this may need qualification. The mediaeval West- erns were not generally aware of any con- tinuity; but then, they knew so little of the matter that they placed the Moslems among the idolators, and were surprised not to find images of 13apmohamer in the mosques captured by the Crusaders. The Easterns, who lived among the adherents of the new cult, were better informed, and con- sequently more discriminating. The Byzan- tine theologians saw Islam as a ramification of the Arian heresy which had troubled the Church for several hundred years, and placed it on a level with other Christian sects, for like that heresy, it made Christ a creature, inferior to the One. In the eighth century, St John of Damascus, who lived at the Muhammadan court, wrote of Islam as but another example of heretical falling- away from the true faith, and drew parallels between the Nestorian and Moslem views of Christ.
Indeed, it was this very agreement which made the secular conquests of Islam so rapid and so far-ranging, since the Nestor- ian heresy (which distinguished so emphati- cally between the godhead and the manhood of Christ as to imperil the whole concept of the incarnation) was well established in the Middle East and the Nestorians were bit- terly opposed to the-orthodoxy of the Byzan- tine empire, and, at the most, very luke- warm defenders of its borders against a creed which seemed to agree so much with theirs. F. W. Buckler puts it very strongly, when he says that 'It was by the genius of Muhammad that Nestorius' doctrine was restored to the realm of religion.' Later historians and theologians, Eastern and Western, have held the same view of the continuity of Islam with Christianity, which can be summed up in Bishop Van Mildert's words: The Code of Mahometanism s comprises almost every heterodox opinion respecting the Christian faith which is to be met with among ancient heretics'.
T. Towers The Vicarage, Ushaw Moor, Co. Durham
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