Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2017

larly debate. 10 In Aristotle's emphasis on the essential role of human reason in pursuit of truth, many Muslim scholars found a helpful framework for interpreting difficult texts or moral-ethical dilemmas. Disciplines such as Islamic scholastic theology ( kalam ) and thinkers such as al-Kindi, al-Farabi, al-Razi, and Ibn Sina all exemplify this tendency to hold revelation as insufficient, needing the help of reason and philosophy to explain problematic issues both outside of and within revealed knowledge. 11 The Mu‘atazilites emerged as a part of this movement, developing a rational theology which looked to reason ‘to assess the claims of revelation’. 12 They considered both theology and philosophy to be doing the same thing; therefore no synthesis of the two was needed, as no conflict between the two existed. 13 On the other hand, popular Muslim opinion found Greek philosophy at odds with Islam. 14 More traditional Sunni theologians, referred to as Ash‘arites, emphasised the sufficiency of the Qur'an, limiting the place of reason, rationality, and philosophy in religious thinking. 15 While both Mu‘atazilites and Ash‘arites would support the study of natural sciences, the former saw it as a domain independent from religion, whereas the latter saw it as valuable only in the support of understanding God’s will and power. 16 7 Frank and Griffel both argue convincingly for the overall maturation of al-Ghazali's thought, rather than the wide inconsistency that popular impressions attribute to him. See R.M. Frank, Al-Ghazali and the Ash 'ante School (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994); Frank Griffel, ‘Taqlld of the Philosophers: Al- GhazalT’s initial Accusation in the Tahafut’, in Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal: Insights into Classical Arabic Literature and Islam , ed. by Sebastian Gunther, Islamic History and Civilization: Studies and Texts (Leiden: Brill, 2005), p. 58. 8 Oliver Leaman, ‘Al-Ghazali’, Oxford Bibliographies Online (Oxford, 2010) <http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/id/obo-9780195390155-0028> [accessed 13 May 2016] 9 J. Mark Halstead, ‘An Islamic Concept of Education’, Comparative Education , 40.4 (2004), 517-29 (p. 517). 10 Some helpful texts that discuss the scope and depth of this translation and preservation include Majid Fakhry, A Short Introduction to Islamic Philosophy, Theology’and Mysticism (Oxford: Oneworld, 1997); Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasaid Society (London: Routledge, 1998). 11 Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), p. 120. 12 Halstead, ‘Islamic Concept’, p. 518. 13 Fakhry, History, pp. 43-56. 14 Fakhry, A Short Introduction, p. 63. 15 Halstead, ‘Islamic Concept’, p. 518. 16 This rift provided rich cognitive grounds for the early Arab Christian apologists and theologians to explain and defend Christian belief in the Trin