RLG204H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-5: Quran, Prayer Rug, Adolf Von Harnack
Document Summary
For more than a millennium islam seemed to be a major threat for the people of europe. Feeling has contributed to those who confessed their beliefs in the religion were regarded as the archenemies of christianity and western civilization. Political level this threat began with the conquest of spain by arabs at the beginning of the 8th century and it ended with the siege of vienna by the ottoman. Not only political reasons for christian europe"s fear: islam is the only world religion that existed after christianity. Therefore unacceptable as a true religion. (considered to be a heresy of christianity- an attitude found early. Byzantine apologetic writings and continuing for centuries; this attitude was later expressed by the german theologian adolf von harnack (d. 1930). The medieval european image of islam and of its prophet, muhammad, is a thoroughly distorted one. Distortion so absurd it considered muhammad (usually called mahomet- hence the scottish mahound for devil ).
