Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery by Ber
The relations of Christians, Jews, and Muslims around the Mediterranean were tumultuous for centuries, and still have consequences (in the Balkans, for instance) that we need to understand if we are to cope with politics and conflict today. In the book Cultures in Conflict. Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery by Bernard Lewis, those relations are examined to reveal the relative position of each and the eventual decline of one to give rise to another. Lewis first examines the way Christians and Muslims looked at one another. Despite their mutual hostility, they understood each other's views rather well. Medieval Christians largely dismissed Muslim theology as post-Gospel heresy; but the Muslims themselves were regarded as serious social and military challengers. By contrast, a still primitive Christendom looked to sophisticated Muslims "rather as Central Asia or Africa appeared to Victorian Englishmen? (pp. 13). However, despite their knowledge of one another (or perhaps because of it), the Christian world was imbedded in a deep conflict with the Islamic and Jewish worlds. The Christian conflict with the Islamic world was, according to Lewis, the result of a rivalry based on three motives: faith, greed, a
The Christian world was in conflict with the Jewish establishment for much the same reasons. Their troubles began with the early Crusaders and a choice for Jews of either conversion or death. These were days of heightened religious awareness when Christendom saw itself as being threatened by heretics on their own turf. In fact, Lewis notes that Jews were oftentimes named together with Moors or Turks as enemies of the establishment even though the militaristic threat was not as great. The threat was instead a religious one. According to Jewish belief the righteous of all peoples will be saved. In this way, the Jews posed a threat because, unlike Islam, their beliefs were far different from Christians so that ?understanding? simply did not exist. The Jewish were aware of the Old Testament, aware of the Christian values of Choice and Promise, but unwilling to accept Christian interpretation. They were also neighbors and unarmed unlike the Muslims so the conflict between the Christian and Jewish worlds is more than obvious. nd fear. From the first invasion of Muslim armies into Christian lands, Christendom lived under Islamic invasion not once but three times. It is obvious in this light why Christendom and Islam were in conflict because of the two-fold threat of conquest and of conversion. From the Islamic point of view, the conflict was entrenched the awareness that Christians were not merely barbarians, but a real threat due to the similarities in ideas and in equal drives of missionary expansionism. Lewis notes that the Muslims saw Christians as followers of a rival religion with a riv
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Approximate Word count = 1085
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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