A journalist, for instance,
however European his mode of life, will write leaders supported by
arguments drawn from tradition and will reason after the manner of the
old scholasticism. But a change may well take place. Islam may
gradually acquire the spirit as well as the form of modern Europe.
Centuries were needed before mediaeval Christianity learned the need
for submission to the new spirit. Within Christendom itself, it was
non-Christian ideas which created the new movement, but these were
completely amalgamated with pre-existing Christianity. Thus, too, a
Renaissance is possible in the East, not merely by the importation and
imitation of European progress, but primarily by intellectual
advancement at home even within the sphere of religion.
Our task is drawing to its close. We have passed in review the
interaction of Christianity and Islam, so far as the two religions are
concerned. It has also been necessary to refer to the history of the
two civilisations, for the reason that the two religions penetrate
national life, a feature characteristic both of their nature and of
the course of development which they respectively followed. This
method of inquiry has enabled us to gain an idea of the rise and
progress of Muhammedanism as such.
An attempt to explain the points of contact and resemblance between
the two religions naturally tends to obscure the differences between
them. Had we devoted our attention to Islam alone, without special
reference to Christianity, these differences, especially in the region
of dogmatic theology, would have been more obvious.
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