Philippine E-Journals

Monotheism Revisited: Islamic Monotheism in Dialogue with Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides, 1135-1204)

Thomas Mooren

 

Abstract:

The dialogue with Maimonides will differentiate the picture of God’s oneness and of God’s involvement in creation— Divinity’s being and doing. In this way key concepts of Maimonides can also retrospectively function as an eye opener for what has begun long before Maimonides, i.e., as post-exile genuine Jewish theology with its specific interpretation of scripture and its openness to mystical speculation (kabbalah). In the end it will also become plausible that Christian theological thinking in the name of trinity owes much to Judaism and can never be understood without it – in the same way as Judaism cannot come to grips with its own history without taking into account Christian theology.