Islam as a 'pagan' religion?

Nicolas Poussin, The Adoration of the Golden Calf

Worshipping a false god as the true one?

(Image from Wikipedia)

I've somewhere read that Aquinas wrote his Summa contra Gentiles to be used in efforts toward converting Muslims to the Christian faith, the term "Gentiles" thus referring to "Muslims" and implying that Muslims were pagans, with whom one could not use the Old Testament for prooftexting and for whom one therefore had to turn to the light of natural reason.

Perhaps natural reason also wouldn't work if Allah is a radically voluntarist deity . . . but let that be.

I'm more interested in the Aquinas's implication that Islam is a sort of 'higher' Paganism rather than a 'lower' Christianity, if such is his view. Islam viewed as a pagan religion has recently resurfaced in the argument put forth by Alain Besançon in his article "What kind of religion is Islam?" for Commentary (May 2004), whose central point is that:

[W]hen Christians and Jews approach Islam . . . [they] may well be struck by the religious zeal of the Muslim toward a God whom they recognize as being also their God. But this God is in fact separate and distinct, and so is the relation between Him and the believing Muslim. Christians are accustomed to distinguish the worship of false gods -- that is, idolatry -- from the worship of the true God. To treat Islam suitably, it becomes necessary to forge a new concept altogether, and one that is difficult to grasp -- namely, an idolatry of the God of Israel. To put it another way, Islam may be thought of as the natural religion of the revealed God.

Besançon's point is an intriguing one but not easy to grasp. Perhaps he means that from a Christian perspective, Muslims have focused on the correct 'God' but that they worship Him in the manner that 'pagans' worship an 'idol'. You'll not my 'scare quotes', intended to alert the reader to a special use of these terms. Go and read Besançon's article at Commentary, for which one needs a subscription, unfortunately.

But while one is waiting for that subscription to take effect, one can read another online article that treats Islam as a sort of pagan religion. This article is now available to nonsubscribers and can be found at First Things, where the pseudonymous "Spengler" (of the Asia Times Online) has published "Christian, Muslim, Jew: Franz Rosenzweig and the Abrahamic Religions" (October 2007). As implied by the title, Spengler presents Rosenzweig on Islam (along with Christianity and Judaism).

Spengler notes that:

At first glance, Rosenzweig's characterization of Islam as pagan appears strange, for we habitually classify religions according to their outward forms and identify paganism with manifestations of polytheism or nature worship. Insisting on the uniqueness of Allah and suppressing outward expressions of idolatry, Islam appears the opposite of a pagan religion. Rosenzweig, however, requires us to see faith from the existential standpoint of the believer, who in revealed religion knows God through God's love. For Rosenzweig, paganism constitutes a form of alienation from the revealed God of Love; Allah, the absolutely transcendent God who offers mercy but not unconditional love, is therefore a pagan deity.

The term 'pagan' is again being used in a particular sense, this time by the Jewish thinker Franz Rosenzweig, writing in The Star of Redemption (1921), as reported by the apparently Christian "Spengler," who comments approvingly upon this use.

From a secular perspective, of course, Islam is yet another monotheism . . . like Judaism and Christianity. But from a Jewish or Christian perspective, what is one to make of it since its status as a 'revealed' religion is highly suspect, to put things mildly?

I leave it to the readers to decide, but you'll first have to read Besançon and "Spengler" to see for yourselves.

"What Kind of Religion Is Islam?"

"Allāh" in Arabic Calligraphy

(Non-Image from Wikipedia)

Over at Maverick Philosopher, the resident maverick Bill Vallicella, who has recently read the Jesuit scholar James V. Schall's article "Belloc on the 'Apparently Unconvertible' Religion" (which explores Hilaire Belloc's views on Islam), has posted a provocative quote from the article:

Belloc's thesis is that Islam began as a Christian heresy which retained the Jewish side of the faith, the Oneness and Omnipotence of God, but denied all the Christian aspects –- the Incarnation, the divinity of Christ, who, as a result, became just a prophet. The denial of the church, the priesthood, and the sacraments followed. Islam succeeded because, in its own terms, it was a simple religion. It was easy to understand and follow its few doctrinal and devotional points.

James V. Schall, S. J., in Vital Speeches of the Day, LXIX (April 1, 2003), 375-82

I reacted to Schall's quote by suggesting that Islam began as a pagan religion that merged pagan belief in a high God with Judeo-Christian monotheism:

I disagree that Islam is a Christian heresy. Muhammad was likely never a Christian despite having a Christian woman as his first wife.

Rather, he was a pagan attracted to the monotheism of both Judaism and Christianity and who began to have religious experiences that he interpreted as revelations.

Muhammad -- in my opinion -- borrowed elements from Judaism and Christianity and joined them to Arab paganism's views on a high God ruling above all.

Alain Besançon calls Islam an "idolatry of the God of Israel" in this passage from his article in the May 2004 issue of Commentary ("What Kind of Religion is Islam"):

"Christians are accustomed to distinguish the worship of false gods -- that is, idolatry -- from the worship of the true God. To treat Islam suitably, it becomes necessary to forge a new concept altogether, and one that is difficult to grasp-namely, an idolatry of the God of Israel."

This is a fascinating suggestion, namely, that Islam worships the true God but in an idolatrous manner. (Muslims need not react too angrily to this critique, for they level similar sort of charge against Christians.)

Anyway, I sense what Besançon was getting at, namely, that Muslims worship the God of Israel but as if he were their old pagan high God ... but I wish that Besançon had explained a bit more clearly what this entails.

Bill responded:

Thanks for your excellent contribution. Question: Couldn't Islam be a Xian heresy even though Muhammad was not a Xian? Is it a necessary condition of a heresy's being a heresy that the proponent of it be a member of the religion the heresy is a deviation from? I merely pose this as a question. I haven't thought about it until just now -- thanks to you, most esteemed cyber-colleague....

"This is a fascinating suggestion, namely, that Islam worships the true God but in an idolatrous manner." Yes it is fascinating, but also unclear. A Plotinian might say that Xians worship the true Absolute, the One, but in an idolatrous manner: they make of the impersonal One a person. And Muslims might say that Xians are idolaters since they import a man, Jesus, into the Godhead. Tough questions here.

I then replied to Bill's point about heresy, in which I made an honorable retreat:

Bill, you asked:

"Couldn't Islam be a Xian heresy even though Muhammad was not a Xian? Is it a necessary condition of a heresy's being a heresy that the proponent of it be a member of the religion the heresy is a deviation from?"

Yes, I think that you're correct. Even without Muhammad being a Christian, he could have constructed a Christian heresy. I could construct an Islamic heresy without ever being a Muslim -- so long as I'm cynical about what I'm doing. If I'm not cynical, then I'm actually a heretical Muslim. Heresies, after all, are usually understood to be within a religion -- the enemy within, as is sometimes said.

So if Islam is a Christian heresy, and if Muhammad was sincere, then he was a Christian heretic ... as all Muslims would be.

But I don't think that Islam is a Christian heresy. It's a different religion, more different from Christianity than Judaism is from Christianity (in my opinion).

Doubtless, this dialogue will go on and on, but Besançon's question remains: "What kind of religion is Islam?"

And Besançon's own answer -- that it's "an idolatry of the God of Israel" -- is one that I'm still puzzling over.