Islamic philosophy shaped even orthodox medieval Christian theology

Evidence

It is one of the common tenets of Christian theology that the souls of the blessed will enjoy the direct vision of God in Paradise. When, therefore, the University of Paris in January 1241 found it necessary to condemn the contrary opinion and to reassert the traditional view, we can be sure that something had taken place to disturb the concord of theologians on this subject. … The new view called forth many replies; one of the weightiest was that of Thomas Aquinas, contained in a long discussion written in about the year 1250. Aquinas, as we should expect, supported the earlier, orthodox view that the souls of the blessed enjoy the direct vision of God; but in answering this Moslem-inspired error he used the language and formulae of another Moslem philosopher, Averroes. If, then, the error was that of Avicenna, the language of the defense was that of Averroes. On a central theological issue Western theologians of all shades of opinion in the midthirteenth century did not scruple to re-examine traditional views in the light of Islamic philosophy, or at least to restate traditional views in the language of these philosophers. — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 328

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the theme of Islam’s intellectual penetration of the West that Southern is building; also echoes how a dominant discourse supplies the very language of its opposition, paralleling how high culture co-opts its critics. — connects to: By 1250 the unity-of-God doctrine was common Christian knowledge about Islam

Related

• The Islamic philosophical influx radically transformed Western learning after 1230 (similarity 0.82)
• Islam’s selective agreement with Christianity defied medieval categorization (similarity 0.81)
• Western medieval Christians knew Islam’s devotional formulas only faintly through rare Arabic translations (similarity 0.80)
• Ideological study of Islam is fundamentally alike across Marxist and medieval Christian frames (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christian writers saw a real philosophical-religious rift within Islam. (similarity 0.79)
• By 1250 the unity-of-God doctrine was common Christian knowledge about Islam (similarity 0.79)
• Renaissance scholarship long coexisted with unrevised medieval views of Islam. (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christian knowledge systems failed to explain or influence Islam (similarity 0.78)
• Medieval Christians could find Islamic and Christian God concepts nearly identical (similarity 0.78)