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THE LOST LEGACY OF CHRISTIANITY : AN ARAB CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY UNDER THE ABBASID CALIPHATE FOR MODERN MISSIONARIES AND DHIMMI CHURCH NO. 2: KITAB AL-BURHAN OF AMMAR AL- BASRI, AN ARABIC THEOLOGY IN THE NINE CENTURY ABBASID AND ITS MISSIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS TODAY

  • Muslim-Christian Encounter
  • Abbr : MCE
  • 2017, 10(2), pp.219-260
  • DOI : 10.30532/mce.2017.09.10.2.219
  • Publisher : Torch Trinity Center for Islamic Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology > Mission Theology
  • Received : August 22, 2017
  • Accepted : September 25, 2017
  • Published : September 30, 2017

Paul In Young Kim 1

1

ABSTRACT

This paper draws attention to Kitab Al-Burhan of Ammar al-Basri as a contextual theology founded on Great Traditions responding to the challenges that the Eastern Church faced under the dominion of Islamic power. It investigates how Ammar’s theology is relevant and fruitful to address present Muslim-Christian relations. For that purpose, the paper studies his context as a dhimmi and flourishing Abbasid intellectual milieu with translation movement, then examines the peculiar features of the contents of Kitab al-Burhan that Ammar al-Basri as a contextual theology. It is noted that Kitab al-Burhan of Ammar remarkably retells the compelling story of Christian discourse with his contemporary Muslims. Ammar reminds today’s evangelical Christians how the former Christians as a dhimmi under Muslim rule reinterpreted Christian faith and rearticulated the “handed down” Tradition and eventually transmitted them to coming Christian generations by producing a contextual theology. Moreover, he maintained faithfully to the apostolic faith and Great Tradition. His theology evolved from his pastoral and missional concerns in the situation that substantiative Christian’s conversion to Islam and the particular challenging context of Dhimmitude. Ammar was a significant contextual theologian who addressed theological issues which are pertinent and meaningful for modern evangelical Christians such as Christianity as the true religion, Trinity, Incarnation, and critical enculturation of Islamic culture and language for doing contextual theology.

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