Three messengers for one God

by Roger Arnaldez

Renowned French scholar Roger Arnaldez is the author of more than a dozen books on the Islamic and Jewish thinkers Ibn Hazm and Philo. Throughout Arnaldez's career he has focused on the fields of Islamic philosophy and theology; however, more recently he has turned to comparative considerations like those discussed in Three Messengers for One God. This book, which contains Arnaldez's unique reflections on a comparative reading of the three Abrahamic faith traditions, has been widely read in France since its publication in 1983 and has not been translated into English until now. In this text Arnaldez approaches the three monotheisms from the vantage point of the believer and the necessary specificity of faith. While such an approach inevitably produces irreducible dogmatic differences, the traditions themselves suggest a point of convergence. Arnaldez demonstrates that each tradition mandates, in its own way and according to its own history, that believers interiorize their faith. They