The Medieval Church · c. 800–820
On the Existence of God and the True Religion
Theodore Abu Qurrah · c. 755 – c. 830
What it is
A man comes down from a mountain knowing nothing and finds nine religions each claiming to be true. Abu Qurrah works through them by asking which account of God matches what a physician would prescribe for a sick creation, and argues his way to the incarnation.
Why it lasted
Christian theology thinking in Arabic rather than being translated into it, by a bishop who debated at the caliph's court. Its thought experiment of a man with no prior religion is a genuinely original piece of comparative argument.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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