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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Major Linguistic Areas in the World
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References: <01bbf1a1$2bddb780$965f47cc@jhoward.vvm.com> <5bei2u$53g@netsrv2.spss.com> <5c36fg$4ro@hermes.synopsys.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 20:01:13 GMT
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In article <5c36fg$4ro@hermes.synopsys.com>,
Joe Buck <jbuck@synopsys.com> wrote:
>markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) writes:
>>I'm not sure what a "Semitic religion" is... I can't see any reason to
>>group Islam closer to Judaism than to Christianity.
>
>Christianity as we conceive it today is a mix of Semitic and Greek
>philosophical ideas (particularly those of Plato and Aristotle,
>Christianized by Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and others).  The Gospel of
>John, written in Greek, was basically a Greek work (and is the only one to
>put forward the idea, considered polytheistic by followers of Islam, that
>Jesus is God; a concept Greeks would have no trouble with).  The Greeks
>had almost no influence on Judaism or Islam.

So the Ikhwan aS-Safa and their neo-platonic ilk got their ideas from the 
angels themselves? Or they weren't Islamic after all?  And, somehow,
Muslim scholars translated hundreds of Greek philosophical works (some
which are known *only* through Arabic translations) without it affecting
their religion one iota?

Fascinating.
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
