Comments on: What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an

By: Richard Chelvan

Richard Chelvan — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:25:40 +0000

First of all Christoph Luxenberg is not an actual name – no real credibility there. Secondly his work is founded upon a lot of supposition and speculation and thirdly, he does not know the languages he is dealing with well enough. I would suggest the work of scholars like Wansborough.
White’s book is excellent because it deals with the text of the Qur’an itself not speculation about any ur-text which we know nothing of even if they ever existed which is also supposition. White has done his homework in dealing with the linguistic challenge of studying classical or Qur’anic Arabic, the tafsir of ibn Kathir and others, and the 6 Sunni ahadith like sahih al Bukhari, sahih Muslim, and etc. That is a lot of material to cover. What scholars like Crone, Wansborough, and others do is try to get at the origins of Islam, Islamic culture, and its sacred texts. To take that tack would be counter-productive – how many evangelical Christians know about the Documentary Hypothesis JEDP, Markan Priority, Q and ur-gospel and etc? Therefore, what White has done is give “What Every Christian Needs to Know About The Qur’an” and not details of text-critical and linguistic speculations concerning the former.

By: SLIMJIM

SLIMJIM — Fri, 03 May 2013 06:34:51 +0000

Thanks for this interview, finally finished it today and I’m a third way into the book tonight.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:58:27 +0000

The interview was very helpful and informative. Dr. White was asked one question and he was off and running with his answer for a long, long time! Great stuff! I had to give this a couple listens just to pick up everything. Very valuable podcast!

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:42:00 +0000

Hi,

Firstly, I want to commend Camden on the simply incredible amount of quality work he puts into this wonderful site. How does he do it?

I was hoping, when I saw the segment title, that Dr. White would provide the listeners with a more cogent response to the Muslim threat – especially so as Boston and the neighboring suburbs have been in lockdown today due to the murderous attack on the Marathon and the subsequent crime wave the two brothers went on.

The interview seemed disjointed and I don’t think Dr. White was able to get on track. Some of the points he brought up were certainly valid but perhaps a little too subtle to persuade most Muslims to reconsider their positions. I feel that a more effective way would be to challenge the fundamental historical claims of Islam. For example, the work of Christoph Luxenberg (a pseudonym) in his The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Qur’an, however controversial, raises points that are very difficult for many Muslims to overcome. Christoph’s basic thesis is that the Qur’an is based on a Syriac Christian lectionary. A very fine outline of his position is found in Wikipedia. Anyone who is interested in counteracting Islamic claims should really read this article. Check him out on Youtube as well. Some of the other scholars associated with Luxenberg are Puin and Ibn Warraq.

I wouldn’t pretend dictate programming for the Reformed Forum but a most beneficial and necessary contribution to Christian apologetics would be a series of conversations on the latest trends in Qur’anic studies, incorporating the Syriac component.

Steve