Quia nolunt dimittere credere pro credere, sed credere per intelligere: Ramon Llull and his Jewish Contemporaries
Harvey Hames
Published in Ramon Llull (1232-1316): the cooperation among different cultures and the inter-religious dialogue
Keywords: Art, Correlatives, Kabbalah, Ramon Llull, Sefirot, Solomon ibn Adret, Trinity, conversion, religious disputation.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Ramon Llull understood the need of actually engaging with the beliefs of his Jewish and Muslim contemporaries, rather than just with their texts, if he wanted to attain their conversion to Christianity. Coming from the Iberian peninsula where new theologies like Kabbalah were gaining ground among the Jews, Llull harnessed its central tenets in order to convince the Jews, by "necessary reason", of the inherent truth of Christianity. This article discusses the intellectual milieau in which Llull developed his Art, shows how he intended it to be used, and brings a Jewish response by Solomon ibn Adret, leader of the Jewish community in Catalonia to the challenge posed by Llull.
Ramon Llull and the Muslims: a difficult propose for conversion
Gabriel ENSENYAT PUJOL
Original title: La difícil proposta lul·liana per a la conversió dels musulmans
Published in
Keywords: Dialogue, Force, Muslims, Ramon Llull, conversion.
Although Ramon Llull has a knowledge of Islam, different factors impossibilities the success of the mission. Some factors were interiors of Christianity and another were different causes: the difficulty of the subject he chose, the psychological restraints, the opposition of Islamic public power, the scarce predisposition to dialogue of Muslim people and, finally, the impossibility to impose a religion without using force.