Via impugnandi in the Age of Alfonso VIII: Iberian-Christian Kalām and a Latin Triad Revisited

Abstract

This concluding chapter argues that not only were there such practitioners of Christian kalām in the lifetime of Alfonso VIII—and most likely in Toledo—but that their works were, moreover, the fruit of such interaction between the Latin-Christian and Arab-Christian intellectual traditions. The rationalist arguments for the Trinity advanced in two Arabic works that survive only fragmentarily both continued a long tradition of Middle-Eastern Trinitarian argumentation rooted in kalām, and incorporated at the same time emerging Latin-Christian Trinitarian theology devised by Peter Abelard and Hugh of St. Victor. As such, they were evidence of an intellectually vital Arab-Christian community that was actively cultivating Arab-Christian and Latin-Christian thought in the twelfth century. However, important scholarly work has appeared on a handful of issues surrounding these texts and their Trinitarian arguments. The chapter then revisits the texts, considering the via impugnandi advanced by these tracts.