Lambert Daneau’s Islam on the Tree of Heresies

Abstract

ABSTRACT Genevan theologian Lambert Daneau's commentary on Augustine's De haeresibus includes a remarkable plate depicting a tree of heresies. The image illustrates the intricate connections between all Christian heresies culminating in Papism and Islam. Daneau additionally devotes an entire chapter of the book to a discussion of Islam. Until the writing of this work, Genevan theologians gave little attention to the problem of Islam, except as an apocalyptic matter or an example of God's judgment. At Zurich, Theodore Bibliander's massive work on the Koran and Heinrich Bullinger's Der Türgg represent more focused efforts to refute Islamic doctrine. Daneau, however, has a unique reason for treating Islam. Daneau traces the creeping growth of Islam from relatively minor, particularized errors within Christianity itself to a monstrous threat in order to stress a primary concern of his: the newly reformed churches need rigorous ecclesiastical discipline to prune themselves of even the smallest deviations from orthodoxy.