Ibn Taymiyya’s Critique of Christianity: An Extension of Intra-Islamic Debates on Qurʾanic Hermeneutics

This essay shows how the Ḥanbalī scholar Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) extends to Christianity what is essentially an intra-Islamic controversy about qurʾanic hermeneutics, itself part of a wider debate on the conflict between reason and revelation. The essay argues that in order to grasp Ibn Taymiyya’s critique of Christianity, one must understand his position on three key issues: (1) his redefinition of qurʾanic exegesis from an open-ended scholarly enterprise into a part of the body of prophetic knowledge, transmitted by the pious ancestors; (2) his views on the agreement of reason and revelation, which he sees as complementary paths to the same truth; and (3) his denunciation of a hermeneutical approach that deflects the intended meaning of the sacred text in order to justify unorthodox views or simply to sow doubt and division, a practice he then attributes to Christians.