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Maimonides, Aquinas and Ghazali: distinguishing God from world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2008

David Burrell
David Burrell*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA, and Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Jerusalemdburrell@nd.edu
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Abstract

This exploration focuses on Moses ben Maimon's attempt to give philosophical voice to the revelation of the Torah to offer a window into the comparative (though not actually collaborative) efforts of Jewish, Christian and Muslim medieval thinkers to adapt the metaphysical strategies available to them to the hitherto inconceivable task of articulating a creation utterly free, with nothing presupposed to it. Short of a divine revelation, nothing could have suggested such an affirmation, so crafting the adaptations demanded of familiar philosophical categories would require exploiting the illumination inherent in those distinct revelations. Far from being a merely historical exercise, these efforts are presented as object lessons for philosophical theologians today, as we move to show how Aquinas and Ghazali complement Maimonides' way of negotiating recondite regions where reason and faith interact. In that sense, this exercise inspired by medieval thinkers may be dubbed ‘postmodern’, since the deliverances of faith can be seen to be interwoven with rational inquiry and indispensable to its execution. Moreover, their witness can also challenge current ‘philosophers of religion’ who may all too easily presume their categories to be adequate to the task of probing the reaches of religious faith. In this way, the call to transform philosophical strategies in ways not unlike that undertaken by our medieval thinkers can suggest a benign reading of the ‘postmodern’ situation in which we admittedly live.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , August 2008 , pp. 270 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 2008

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References

1 At this point, Jose Faur directs us to his article: ‘God as Writer: Omnipresence and the Art of Dissimulation’, Cross Currents 6 (1989), pp. 37–8.

2 His advice is explicitly incoherent, which suggests that he realised how misleading is the decoding metaphor: ‘to decode God's speech and writing, the hearer/reader must fill in the intervals between the letters and the words, discovering the syntax which is manifested but not located in them, like Bezalel, the builder of the tabernacle, who knew how to join the letters by which Heaven and earth were created. Thus “proving” Creation is the same kind of oxymoron as a proposition articulating the syntax of its own syntax’ (p. 14). See also Pickstock, Catherine, After Writing (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001)Google Scholar.

3 Many have difficulty distinguishing analogy from metaphor because they expect the words themselves to differ; it is the realisation, the use itself, which turns the trick. Daniel Davies has just completed a doctoral dissertation at Cambridge, titled ‘The Unity of Metaphysical Vision in the Guide for the Perplexed: A Study in Maimonides’ Methods of Presentation’, which explores the Rambam's use of various linguistic strategies to bring about this realisation.

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