Islam as a heresy of Catholicism

[MelanieAnne]

OK, I have to admit, I have withheld this question for some time. But now, my curiosity is such that I have to ask ~

In a discussion with my Pastor, he stated ~ (this isn’t a perfect quote, but I’m doing my best here)

“There are those scholars who consider Islam as a heresy of the Roman Catholic Church.”

There are many historical heresies in the course of the development of the Church, particularly during the early years and I have studied them at University, but I had never heard that Islam might be one of them, until my Pastor mentioned it.

Yes, I can quiz my Pastor on the details of his statement, but with over 4500 families to serve in our parish, I decline to take his time for my questions. So for now, I am asking for an answer from my online contacts ~ WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

SERIOUS REPLIES ONLY PLEASE (I DO NOT mean to open anything more than a scholarly thread on the subject!)

I am TRULY INTRESTED to know the basis for this supposition. I am NOT interested in starting a thread that advocates or encourages the bashing of anyone or anything including Islam or any other faith.

I just want to KNOW the basis, if any, for this, if anyone knows.

 

[jack_hawkins]

Islam says that it is the true version of both Judaism and Christianity, and takes elements of both (distorted largely) - I imagine this is what he means. It isn’t one of the great religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, it is a corruption of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. For example Islam claims that all the OT prophets were Muslims.

 

[Ghosty]

There is also the scholarly opinion that Mohammed drew much of his faulty understanding of Christianity from Christian heretics like the Nestorians (he was related to a Nestorian, IIRC). Ideas like Jesus being a prophet and not being truly God would stem directly from Nestorianism, for example, as would a misrepresentation of Marian devotion (Mohammed apparently believed that the Trinity was the Father, Son, and Mary).

So even if Islam is not a direct heresy of Catholicism, like Arianism and Nestorianism, or even the various denominations of Protestantism, it certainly can claim some heritage from Christian heresies. Incidently, this opinion is not merely a recent one, as St. John of Damascus said similar things about Islam, and he lived right at the time of its spread.

Peace and God bless!

 

[Wisdom]

OK, I have to admit, I have withheld this question for some time. But now, my curiosity is such that I have to ask ~

In a discussion with my Pastor, he stated ~ (this isn’t a perfect quote, but I’m doing my best here)

“There are those scholars who consider Islam as a heresy of the Roman Catholic Church.”

There are many historical heresies in the course of the development of the Church, particularly during the early years and I have studied them at University, but I had never heard that Islam might be one of them, until my Pastor mentioned it.

Yes, I can quiz my Pastor on the details of his statement, but with over 4500 families to serve in our parish, I decline to take his time for my questions. So for now, I am asking for an answer from my online contacts ~ WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

SERIOUS REPLIES ONLY PLEASE (I DO NOT mean to open anything more than a scholarly thread on the subject!)

I am TRULY INTRESTED to know the basis for this supposition. I am NOT interested in starting a thread that advocates or encourages the bashing of anyone or anything including Islam or any other faith.

I just want to KNOW the basis, if any, for this, if anyone knows.

The last time I heard someone recommend this was when I read a Jack Chick tract which suggested that the Vatican started Islam. This is utterly ridiculous in reality Islam is far more like Protestantism than anything else, they are iconoclast, don’t believe in a central authority but rather are people of the books whose whole religion is based on the interpretation of the book. Hmm sounds like Protestantism. Of course similarities don’t mean a link and thats the same with Islam and Catholcism. It has been suggested by some scholars that Muhammed’s uncle was a Nestorian Christian a heretical from of Christianity that denied that Mary is the Mother of God, another catholic teaching by the way that many modern day protestants also reject. Another point that Islam in some ways is closer to protestantism.

The Nestorians believed that Mary only gave brith to Jesus human nature thus their was disctinct persons within Jesus instead of the hypostatic union that Catholic beleive in and teachings were dogmatized at the Council of Ephesus those who rejected became known as Nestorians. This heretical form of Christiantiy is the one that Muhammed was mostly familiar with and party explains his errors in explaining the teachins of Christiantiy which he really did not grasp. SO in a way Islam might be a heresey of a heresey. And by the way according to the catholic view protestants are a heresey that traces their break from us and we can demonstrate that historically. So yeah Islam can say some teachings sprang from Nestoriansim which sprang from the Catholic Church the only Orthodox Christian church at this time may I remind you. And if this is what your pastor meant than he might be correct however if he is to suggest that Islam is the cause of heresies within the catholic church he would be in extreme error and in biased to such a degree he is getting his info from Jack Chick tracts. And if this is the case I would say not walk but run from this crazy man and his fundamentalist church.

Insofar that Islam is a perversion of Christian doctrine it is a hersey of not only Catholcism but protestantism and Orthodoxy. However an important point must be made here that your pastor irresponsibly did not include or mistakenly does not believe. It did not rise within the bounds of the Christian (catholic) church. He was not like the Reformers a man of catholic brith and their basic doctrine found in the Church. Rather he was a pagan who through his contacts with Nestorian Christians already a heresey oversimplified (catholic) Christiantiy he preached many peculiar teachings not found in Catholic Christiantiy and funny enough some of it found their way to Protestnat theology for instance iconclasticism. But alas this is the context of Islam and heresey.

 

[Contarini]

OK, I have to admit, I have withheld this question for some time. But now, my curiosity is such that I have to ask ~

In a discussion with my Pastor, he stated ~ (this isn’t a perfect quote, but I’m doing my best here)

“There are those scholars who consider Islam as a heresy of the Roman Catholic Church.”

There are many historical heresies in the course of the development of the Church, particularly during the early years and I have studied them at University, but I had never heard that Islam might be one of them, until my Pastor mentioned it.

Yes, I can quiz my Pastor on the details of his statement, but with over 4500 families to serve in our parish, I decline to take his time for my questions. So for now, I am asking for an answer from my online contacts ~ WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

SERIOUS REPLIES ONLY PLEASE (I DO NOT mean to open anything more than a scholarly thread on the subject!)

I am TRULY INTRESTED to know the basis for this supposition. I am NOT interested in starting a thread that advocates or encourages the bashing of anyone or anything including Islam or any other faith.

I just want to KNOW the basis, if any, for this, if anyone knows.

See Hilaire Belloc, *The Great Heresies, *which takes this approach (from a Catholic perspective).

I would say that Islam is a Judaeo-Christian heresy (in the same sense that Jews would consider Christianity a Jewish heresy, or that medieval Christians came to consider rabbinic Judaism a heresy because it misinterpreted Old Testament Judaism) rather than simply a Christian (much less specifically “Roman Catholic”–whatever that means in the 7th century) heresy. Muhammad drew on both Jewish and Christian traditions (in a highly garbled form, though of course Muslims see it differently!).

Edwin

 

[SPH1]

I’ve considered Islam to be a kind of Judeo-Christian heresy.