The Calvinist Christian can explain not only how the Christian Scriptures are inspired, inerrant and self-attesting, but also explain how God in history providentially used fallible humans to copy and recognize the Canon of Scripture. The Calvinist Christian can also (via his theology of providence derived from the Bible) account for the existence of textual variants and why they don't affect the integrity of God's Word or the knowability of God's revelation by His people.
Can Muslims (or a specific sect of Islam) do a similar thing? Can they identify which hadith traditions are accurate and from Allah and which are not? If so, how without having the problem of human error getting in the way of knowing for certain? Do they have a comparable theology of providence?
If they appeal to Allah's providence to explain how fallible Muslims can recognize additional hadith, then what's the point in arguing the superiority of the Qur'an over the Christian Bible on the basis of there being (allegedly) no variants in the Islamic Qur'an?
However, Qur'anic textual variants have been documented not only by modern secular scholars, but even believing and devout Muslim theologians have mentioned them throughout the centuries. Doesn't the fact that Uthman burned other versions of the Qur'an prove that there were variants? If Muslims claim that Uthman only burned the erroneous versions in order to preserve the authentic (i.e. non-corrupted and non-altered) version then doesn't that show that the Qur'an can be corrupted just like the Bible?
Finally, how do Muslim's know that Uthman preserved the right version of the Qur'an rather than a corrupted version? If Muhammad was the last of Allah's Apostles then Uthman wasn't an Apostle. How then could Uthman be infallibly guided by Allah to preserve the right version? Was Uthman sinless? If not, then how do we know he didn't have an agenda in his selection of which version to preserve and which versions to destroy?
If you want any Catholic feedback on your next essay before it goes live, send it my way! It doesn’t get any better than seeing “BaBOOM” get used in a debate. It’s been a favorite saying in our house for years! :)
The Calvinist Christian can explain not only how the Christian Scriptures are inspired, inerrant and self-attesting, but also explain how God in history providentially used fallible humans to copy and recognize the Canon of Scripture. The Calvinist Christian can also (via his theology of providence derived from the Bible) account for the existence of textual variants and why they don't affect the integrity of God's Word or the knowability of God's revelation by His people.
ReplyDeleteCan Muslims (or a specific sect of Islam) do a similar thing? Can they identify which hadith traditions are accurate and from Allah and which are not? If so, how without having the problem of human error getting in the way of knowing for certain? Do they have a comparable theology of providence?
If they appeal to Allah's providence to explain how fallible Muslims can recognize additional hadith, then what's the point in arguing the superiority of the Qur'an over the Christian Bible on the basis of there being (allegedly) no variants in the Islamic Qur'an?
However, Qur'anic textual variants have been documented not only by modern secular scholars, but even believing and devout Muslim theologians have mentioned them throughout the centuries. Doesn't the fact that Uthman burned other versions of the Qur'an prove that there were variants? If Muslims claim that Uthman only burned the erroneous versions in order to preserve the authentic (i.e. non-corrupted and non-altered) version then doesn't that show that the Qur'an can be corrupted just like the Bible?
Finally, how do Muslim's know that Uthman preserved the right version of the Qur'an rather than a corrupted version? If Muhammad was the last of Allah's Apostles then Uthman wasn't an Apostle. How then could Uthman be infallibly guided by Allah to preserve the right version? Was Uthman sinless? If not, then how do we know he didn't have an agenda in his selection of which version to preserve and which versions to destroy?
If you want any Catholic feedback on your next essay before it goes live, send it my way! It doesn’t get any better than seeing “BaBOOM” get used in a debate. It’s been a favorite saying in our house for years! :)
ReplyDeleteIn Christ,
Pete