Mark Humphrys (politics)

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The Church and Islamism - Christianity on Islam in the past






  Thomas Aquinas (13th century)

Christianity on Islam (18th century and later)

Modern Christianity doesn't understand Islam

Humphrey Prideaux (17th century)





Christianity on Islam in the past

Christianity understood Islam much better in the past. Christians before the modern age clearly understood both the warfare of jihad and the oppression of sharia. They also clearly understood the character of Muhammad.

Yes, I know Christianity's past is itself full of crimes. But, on the issue of Islam at least, I kind of miss the days when Christianity stood up for itself.




Thomas Aquinas (13th century)

  
 
 
 

Thomas Aquinas talks about the religion of "Mahumete" in Book 1, Chapter 6, of Summa Contra Gentiles (13th century).
From pp.9-10 of 1664 edition (Bordeaux, France).



English translation of the above.
From p.13 of 1924 edition.


  

  

Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich (1697)

  

  

Christian writings in the 18th century and later

  

From p.398 of A body of practical divinity (1759) by Rev. Thomas Watson.



From p.95 of A Catechism upon a new and improved plan (1793).




From p.40 onwards in True and False Religion examined (1797).





John Wesley talks about Islam on pp.34-35 of The Doctrine of Original Sin (1817).



From Pinnock's first catechism for children (1837).




However, not everything in the above makes sense!




From the Catechism of perseverance (1850).
Who would believe that by the 21st century the Catholic church would be complaining about blasphemy against Islam!



Extracts of the entry for MOHAMMEDANISM in vol.10 of The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).




More from the Catholic Encyclopedia entry of 1913.
It refers to recent atrocities by the Turks.
I think Christianity understood Islam better in this period.




Modern Christianity doesn't understand Islam

Christianity in the late 20th century started to adopt left-wing narratives on many topics, and as a result has become bizarrely pro-Islam. Modern Christianity seems to understand Islam far less than its ancestors did.




The term used for Muslims has been constantly changing.
Mohammedan: This graph shows the decline of the term "Mohammedan" (various spellings).
This is a search on Google Books Ngram Viewer for the count of various words in scanned Google Books in 1780 to 1945.
The modern term "Muslim" is included to show the decline.
If we extend the graph to 2015, "Mohammedan" vanishes.



Mussulman: Another variant was "Mussulman" (various spellings).
The above is a search in 1780 to 1945.
Again, the modern term "Muslim" is included to show the decline.
If we extend the graph to 2015, "Mussulman" vanishes.



Moslem: The rise of the term "Muslim" is not quite as dramatic as shown above. It used to be spelt "Moslem".
The spelling "Muslim" only became common in the 20th century.
The above is a search in 1780 to 1990.
If we extend the graph to 2015, "Moslem" declines even further.



Not a Christian thing, but this 1903 cartoon in New York shows the standard Western view of Turkish oppression and jihad.
Bigotry? Not really. More like a sad prophecy. This is only a short time before the Turkish genocide of Christians began in 1909.
See full size.



I bought a 1712 edition of Prideaux's Life of Mahomet.
300 years old, and still edgier than any modern newspaper or any modern comedian.
See full size.




Politics      Religion      Since 1995.      New 250 G VPS server.


Banned in Iran: This site is banned in Iran.

Blocked on Twitter by the regressive left and Islamists: I love debate. I love ideas. But the Western left and their friends the Islamic right do not return the favour. Their response to opposing ideas, whether expressed politely or robustly, is often to block. See Who blocks me on Twitter.

I like debate. But I do have rules. See Who I block on Twitter.

Twitter is broken, 2016 to 2022: I am on Twitter at markhumphrys. Twitter was a great place for debate before 2016. You could meet everyone in the world, and argue about ideas. Starting in 2016, Twitter became increasingly broken. It became full of reporting and bans and censorship. In 2019, Twitter even started shadowbanning me for no reason that was ever explained, or could be appealed. By 2022, everyone was looking for a better place to debate.

Twitter is saved, 2022: In 2022 Elon Musk bought Twitter and started to end the censorship. It looks great so far. Twitter seems to be saved.

Campaigns to silence me: I now have no less than two entries on the Banned List at Academics for Academic Freedom. This is a list of "individuals who were banned from speaking at universities in the UK and Ireland, or faced campaigns to silence them, or sack them for their views." The two campaigns to silence me were the BLM protests (unsuccessful) and the Israel debate (partially successful, in that it drove the debate off campus).