Peter the Venerable conceived of Islam as the last unanswered Christian heresy

Evidence

Peter the Venerable had been conscious that his work of promoting a translation of the Koran and investigating the religious tenets of Islam was not likely to meet with approval. He tried to enlist the support of Bernard of Clairvaux, and failed. He tried to justify his initiative in the context of the long-term interests of Christendom, but he had little response. Like his great Greek predecessor John of Damascus, whose work was coming to be known in the West at this time, he saw Islam as a Christian heresy, the last and greatest of the heresies, and the only one that had not been answered. — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 205

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames the specific medieval Christian conception of Islam as a heresy, not a separate religion — the loaded theological category Southern traces throughout.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does the heresy-framing of Islam differ across medieval thinkers, and when did it finally break down?

Related

• Medieval Christians first classified Islam as heresy within their own taxonomy (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval churchmen genuinely debated whether Islam was heresy (similarity 0.81)
• Whether Islam technically counted as heresy was debated among medieval Latin theologians (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christians understood Islam as heresy and lumped Muslims with Jews and heretics. (similarity 0.81)
• Peter the Venerable claimed the Qur’an uniquely forbade religious discussion (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christians framed Islam as an old heresy rather than a new religion (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval writers read Islam as the Devil’s renewal of older Christian heresies. (similarity 0.81)
• John of Damascus framed Islam as a heresy, not a new religion (similarity 0.81)
• Twelfth-century Latin writers reframed Islam from paganism to a heresy (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval polemicists portrayed Islam as a compilation of earlier Christian heresies. (similarity 0.80)
• Islam posed the most far-reaching problem medieval Christendom faced (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval thought cast Islam variously as heresy, schism, and third revealed law (similarity 0.80)
• Christians constituted Islam as a Christian heresy, not a foreign religion (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval theologians placed Islam midway between heresy and paganism (similarity 0.79)
• Early Christian writers framed Islam as one more heresy, not a new religion (similarity 0.79)