anti-Christian Polemic Research Articles

Süleyman Nazif's ‘Open Letter to Jesus’: An Anti-Christian Polemic in the Early Turkish Republic

The recent ‘cartoon crisis’ caused by European newspapers that published disrespectful caricatures of the prophet Muhammad and offended Muslims all over the world, intensified the discussions on ‘the clash of civilizations’. The present religious quarrels, as distressing as they are, remind us of the uproar Süleyman Nazif (1870–1927), a Muslim Turkish nationalist caused in Turkey in 1924. At that time the bone of contention was not a cartoon but the ‘Open Letter to Jesus’ Nazif published followed by his ‘The Reply of Jesus’ and in both of which he condemned the ‘crusader mentality’ of the Christian world. Being political satires, these letters reflect the views of Süleyman Nazif on the imperialist European powers, show his attempt to defend the newly founded Turkish Republic and illustrate how relations between Turkey and Europe had been deepening the prejudices of Muslims and Christians toward each other. This contribution presents translations of Nazif's two letters, preceded by an overview of Muslim–Christian polemics in the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic.

Re-imagining Tatian: The Damaging Effects of Polemical Rhetoric

Tatian, a second-century Christian apologist, is best known on the one hand for his much admired and only extant text, the Oratio ad Graecos, and on the other for heresy. Starting with Irenaeus, Tatian develops a reputation particularly among the western Fathers for heresy and extreme asceticism—including sexual renunciation, vegetarianism, and abstention from alcohol. In the late fourth century Tatian reappears as the reputed (and heretical) author of the Diatessaron, possibly the gospel harmony most popular in the Syriac-speaking churches. In medieval Syriac Christian writings, due to a conflation of these two earlier associations, Tatian's reputation transforms itself yet again. Thus, due to his presumed now generic-heretical standing, these authors further accuse Tatian of removing the NT genealogies from his harmonized text thus undermining the human element in christological theory. Yet I think it can be demonstrated that these two reputations—the one of heretical encratism, and the other of heretical Christology—in fact reflect polemical constructions created to deflect external anti-Christian polemic and internal cross-Christian conflict onto another group rather than historical reality.

A Jew in Celsus' True Doctrine? An examination of Jewish Anti-Christian polemic in the second century C.E

One of the major obstacles to presenting a more balanced assessment of Jewish-Christian relations in the 2nd century C.E. is the virtual absence of Jewish literary sources for the period. Though Jews figure prominently in the writings of the 2nd century Church Fathers and later Christian Apologists, it is becoming increasingly evident in scholarship that these texts portray Jews in a tendentious manner, often reveal more about Christian self-definition than they do about either Jews or Judaism, and tend to talk at Jews more than they talk with Jews. Nevertheless, there is one oft-neglected work that might help to remedy these problems and contribute to a better understanding of Jewish perceptions of Christianity in the 2nd century. There is reason to believe that embedded within Celsus' True Doctrine are authentic Jewish arguments against Christianity. This article presents a source-critical analysis of Celsus, analyzing the nature of Celsus' debt to 2nd-century Jewish sources and their significance for Jewish-Christian relations at that time.

Ibn Hazms Evangelienkritik: Eine methodische Untersuchung

The book presents a first attempt to investigate the criticism of the Gospels, hardly considered within the previous research work of the Islamic scholar Ibn hazm (d. 1064) referring to its methodological and socio-cultural background. After analysing the hardly accounted, however for the understanding of Ibn hazm's thought essential commentary about Aristoteles' logic, the raised reproaches by Ibn hazm against the Christians are discussed. The topics include falsification of the Gospels, the irrationality of their contents and of the whole Christian religion. In conclusion the question of the main purpose of its anti-Christian polemic arises in the light of the background of the special socio-political situation in Arabic Andalusia. It's a book written in a general way of understanding offering an interesting and new insight into the history of Islamic/Christian polemics.

Buddhist logic and apologetics in 17th century China: An analysis of the use of Buddhist syllogisms in an anti-Christian polemic

A glimpse of the new application of Buddhist logic in the seventeenth century leads us to reflect about our approach to logic in a given religious tradition: Should we isolate a logical system from the very context that has given rise to the genesis and development of such an intellectual apparatus? Methodologically, we do have the legitimate right to approach Buddhist logic from a purely logical point of view. However, when we study the actual use of Buddhist logic in the seventeenth-century anti-Christian polemic, an analysis of its intentional application allows us to conclude that Buddhist logic in the context of controversy is primarily apologetic. Therefore, with a methodological concern, I suggest that philosophers and logicians should reconsider the apologetic nature of logic in any given religious tradition.

J. W. Hargis, Against the Christians. The Rise of Early Anti-Christian Polemic. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. Pp. ix + 172. ISBN 0-8204-4156-2. £28.00/US$44.95.

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Against the Christians. The Rise of Early Anti-Christian Polemic (review)

Against the Christians. The Rise of Early Anti-Christian Polemic (review)

Against the Christians: the rise of early anti-Christian polemic

Against the Christians: the rise of early anti-Christian polemic

Polemic Literary Units in the Classical Midrashim and Justin Martyr's "Dialogue with Trypho"

After a literary analysis of Justin's «Dialogue with Trypho», the A. compares three selections from the «Dialogue» with parallel sources in «Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael» and «Genesis Rabbah». This comparison raises the possibility of the existence of polemical collections which were eventually incorporated into the classical midrashim. Some of these units might very well trace their beginnings to anti-pagan polemic, which were modified later to answer the needs of anti-Christian polemic

A Fragment of Byzantine Anti-Christian Polemic

A Fragment of Byzantine Anti-Christian Polemic

Anti-Christian Polemic in Leviticus Rabbah

Anti-Christian Polemic in Leviticus Rabbah

Goethe's "Die Braut von Korinth": Anti-Christian Polemic or Hymn of Love and Death?

Goethe's "Die Braut von Korinth": Anti-Christian Polemic or Hymn of Love and Death?

The Era of Porphyry's Anti‐Christian Polemic

The Era of Porphyry's Anti‐Christian Polemic

The Essence of Christian Belief

In his powerful anti-Christian polemic, The Misery of Christianity, J. Kahl charges Christianity with suffering from a rock-bottom lack of identity. ‘Theologians…have been looking for a continuous thread which will lead them out of the maze of contradictory forms of Christianity…into the open. They would like to be able to say with binding force what Christianity really is.’1 But, he urges, they cannot. P. van Buren agrees, but sees in this no cause for concern. ‘Christianity has been changing since its beginning, the religion of the past constantly being adapted to the conditions of each new present. Once we see this character of Christianity, we are released from the misconceived task of trying to identify its unchanging essence.’2 Again more recently J. Hick has urged, in effect half agreeing with van Buren, that although there is an unchanging element in Christianity, it is restricted to ‘the originating events from which the moving stream of christian history has flowed’. ‘Christianity is an ongoing movement of life and thought, defined by its origin in the Christ-event and by its consciousness of that origin. It cannot be defined in terms of adherence to any doctrinal standard, for its doctrines are historically and culturally conditioned and have changed as the church has entered new historical and cultural situations.’3

Anti-Christian Polemic in Medieval Bible Commentaries

Anti-Christian Polemic in Medieval Bible Commentaries