Constantine murdered his son, his wife, and his rivals; he was baptized only as he lay dying; and he reshaped Christianity more deeply than anyone since its founders—for reasons of state. The church made him a saint and, in the same breath, taught itself to forget how much of the faith he built. Ask a … Continue reading The Thirteenth Apostle
The Tower and the Gallows: Haman, Pharaoh, and the Archetype Behind a Name
Two men are given the same kind of assignment: build something tall. The first is told by his master to fire bricks of clay and raise a tower so high that its owner can climb up and look at the God of Moses. The second is told by his wife and his friends to put … Continue reading The Tower and the Gallows: Haman, Pharaoh, and the Archetype Behind a Name
The Death-Penalty Fatwas of Ibn Taymiyyah
Ibn Taymiyyah is one of the most influential—and controversial—figures in the history of Sunni Islam. A medieval jurist and theologian of the Ḥanbalī school, he became famous for his attacks on theological speculation, saint veneration, shrine practices, and what he regarded as religious innovations. Centuries after his death, his writings would become enormously important to … Continue reading The Death-Penalty Fatwas of Ibn Taymiyyah
The Missing Body: Disappearance as Apotheosis in the Ancient World
When a great man's corpse could not be produced, the ancient Mediterranean did not conclude that it had been mislaid. It concluded that he had been taken. A body that vanished was a body that had been received among the gods, and the absence itself served as the proof. This was not a stray superstition … Continue reading The Missing Body: Disappearance as Apotheosis in the Ancient World
When a Law Is Not a Law: Cicero, the natural-law tradition, and the Quran’s higher standard
There is a moment in Cicero's On the Laws where the old lawyer stops arguing like a lawyer and starts arguing like a physician. He has been asked, in effect, the most dangerous question anyone can ask a legal system: if a rule is passed correctly, by the right people, with the right stamps and … Continue reading When a Law Is Not a Law: Cicero, the natural-law tradition, and the Quran’s higher standard
Moses Did Not Receive the Torah (Quran vs. Hadith)
Ask most people—Muslim or otherwise—what book God gave Moses, and the answer comes back instantly: the Torah. It is treated as settled. Yet when you actually search the Quran for that claim, it is not there. The Quran never says the Torah (al-Tawrat, التوراة) was handed to Moses. What Moses received is named with different … Continue reading Moses Did Not Receive the Torah (Quran vs. Hadith)
Jesus Declares Himself a Liar in Sahih Hadith (Hadith vs. Quran)
Imagine a man of unquestioned honesty who watches a theft unfold before his eyes. The thief, confronted, swears by God that he did nothing. The witness then turns around and declares that he is the one who has lied. Few would call that humility. Most would call it a collapse of both truth and justice. … Continue reading Jesus Declares Himself a Liar in Sahih Hadith (Hadith vs. Quran)
Two Voices, One Sky: Cicero’s Cosmic Argument and the Signs of the Quran
More than a thousand years and an ocean of language separate the Roman lawyer Cicero from the Arabic scripture of the Quran. Yet stand them side by side and something remarkable happens: they begin to sound like two witnesses describing the same courtroom exhibit. In the sixteenth section of the second book of his dialogue … Continue reading Two Voices, One Sky: Cicero’s Cosmic Argument and the Signs of the Quran
Why Stop at Three? The counting problem hidden inside the doctrine of the Trinity
Christianity's central claim about God is that he is one being who exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The technical formula, hammered out in the councils of the fourth and fifth centuries, is that God is one in substance (or essence) and three in person. Substance answers the question of what God … Continue reading Why Stop at Three? The counting problem hidden inside the doctrine of the Trinity
How is the Quran Clear?
The Quran repeatedly describes itself as a clear book (kitābun mubīn): 12:1, 26:2, 27:1, 28:2, 43:2, 44:2. But clarity of expression is not the same thing as clarity of meaning. These are two distinct categories that are often collapsed, and the confusion between them has generated centuries of interpretive controversy. Consider a simple example: someone … Continue reading How is the Quran Clear?
