God and the Trinity in Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī

Abstract

This article focuses on some aspects of al-Rāzī's concept of God and his refutation of the Trinity. The first part examines how al-Rāzī understands the essence of God in his last work Al-maṭālib al-‘āliya in order to shed light on areas that are particularly problematic for an acceptance of the Christian concept of the Trinity. The second part examines al-Rāzī's commentary on some key qur'anic verses which deal with the divinity of Jesus and with the qur'anic version of the Trinity in his work Mafātīḥ al-ghayb. The article will offer a brief introduction to the problems around the authorship of this work and focus on some verses that present al-Rāzī's refutation of the divinity of Jesus and the concept of understanding God as three distinct essences. The article particularly focuses on the relation between the logic of his refutation of the Trinity and his own understanding of the essence of God as in Al-maṭālib al-‘āliya, and argues that al-Rāzī's refutation is closely connected to his rational conception of tanzīh.