Quranic Christology in Late Antiquity. ‘Isa ibn Maryam and His Divine Power (Energeia) in the Islamic Revelation

Marco Demichelis

doi:10.3390/rel12110979

Abstract

Christology and monotheism have been dogmatically linked in the long history of Islam-Christian dialogue since the beginning of the 8th century. The Qur’an, in an analytical perception of religious otherness, specifically in relation to Christianity, assumed a dual discernment: on the one hand, it adopts a sceptical position because Christians are assimilationist (2: 120, 135, 145; 5: 51), sectarian and made Jesus the son of God (4: 171; 5: 14–19, 73; 9: 30; 18: 4–5; 21: 26); on the other hand, they are commended over the Jews and ‘Isa ibn Maryam has been strengthened with the Holy Spirit by God himself (2: 59, 62, 87, 253; 3: 48; 5: 47, 73, 82, 85, 110). The importance of enforcing the consciousness of a Quranic Christology, specifically where it concerned the potential influence that Christological doctrines such as adoptionism and monoenergism had on early Islam in late antiquity, where it was based on the proto- Islamic understanding of Jesus, and where it was rooted in Patristic orthodox-unorthodox debates, fell into oblivion. How was the Quranic canonization process affected by the ongoing Christological debates of the 7th century? Could Heraclius’ monoenergism have played a concrete influence on Quranic Christology? And in which way did early Kalam debates on God’s speech and will remain linked to Quranic Christology?

Highlights

Sources and Methodological ProblemsThe historical debate on the Islamic-Quranic interpretation and understanding of ‘Isa ibn Maryam alias Jesus, has been faced many times by Academia since the earlyIslamic centuries
The purpose of this study is to work on the correlation and the plausible influence of the last internal Christological debates which emerged during the reign of the emperor Heraclius (d. 641) on the canonization process of ‘Isa ibn Maryam in the Qur’an
Summing up the above complexity, it is important to consider that Quranic Christology remained fragmented into two main assumptions: the humanity of Isa’ ibn Maryam, and his special nature

Summary

Introduction

The historical debate on the Islamic-Quranic interpretation and understanding of ‘Isa ibn Maryam alias Jesus, has been faced many times by Academia since the early. Adam, whose creation without a father or a mother, was considered even more unusual than that of ‘Isa ibn Maryam, seems disconnected from a real comparative approach: Jesus’s birth is like that of every human being, the creation of Adam is not comparable to any other man; in parallel, and the Qur’an focuses greatly on this aspect, the presence of the Holy Spirit (Jibril or not) in Jesus is why he can perform miracles, but these miracles are not attributed to Adam in the Islamic revelation; on the contrary, Adam with his wife Eve will be driven out of the Garden of Heaven (20: 120–24) for having listened to the Snake. God, is allowed to carry out actions that are not normally human

Jesus ibn Maryam in the Qur’an

Conclusions