User:Calthinus/Islamo-Christian Civilization

Islamo-Christian civilization is a macrocultural and historiographical paradigm proposed by Richard Bulliet, a professor of history at Columbia University focusing in both Islamic history and historical anthropology. The theory, rejects the depiction of the relationship between Islam and Christianity as irreparably hostile and doomed to competition as described in Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations paradigm. It suggests that rather than strangers whose irreconcilable differences keep them from cooperating, Islam and Christianity are two "fraternal twins that are almost indistinguishable in childhood but have distinctive, and not necessarily compatible, personalities as adults".

Background

See also: Clash of Civilizations

The Islamo-Christian paradigm

Common origins

See also: Abrahamic religions

Islamo-Christian civilization is underlied by the shared provenance of both Christianity and Islam in that "they are two versions of a common socioreligious system, just as Orthodox Christianity and Western Christendom are".

Islamo-Christian societies

The Islamo-Christian hypothesis notes that rather than constituting an indivisible whole, both Islam and Christian realms consisted of many distinct realms, and the relationship between Islam and Christianity varied between regions, with Eastern Christianity having a much more entwined and mutually influencing relationship with Islam than Western Christianity.

Developments after the Renaissance

Bulliet argues that Islam and Christianity beginning in the Early Middle Ages faced common challenges in parallel time , but reacted in somewhat different ways, ultimately leading to slow accumulation of divergences that engendered a parting of ways that became evident first in the 14th to 16th centuries.

Relation to Jewish Civilization

The paradigm of Islamo-Christian civilization as presented by Bulliet does acknowledge, in addition to Abrahamic commonalities, the historic interactions between Jews and various Islamo-Christian societies, but the focus of the model is on the relations between Christianity and Islam, not either with Judaism.

Other views

Bulliet remarks that the current relationship between Islam and Christianity, as well as the current challenges faced by Muslim citizens of Western countries, could be seen as echoing earlier tensions between Protestants and mostly-immigrant groups of Catholics and Jews in the United States before the 1960s, where after a period of acrimony, Bulliet argues that in the end "John F. Kennedy's victory in the Democratic primary in largely Protestant West Virginia proved that the American people had capacity for inclusion than their preachers and theologicians did".

Reception

Howard Dooley at West Michigan University in a review of the work stated that "World historians will enjoy and profit from this wise and wonderful book with an eye-opening approach succinctly captured in its title.. No one who has digested this little volume will be able to look at Islam and Christianity again in the same way."

See also

Concepts in the same vein:

• Hellenoturkism and Intermediate Region with notable proponents including Dimitri Kitsikis
• The Decline of the West written by Oswald Spengler presents "Byzantine-Muslim civilization" as "Magian".