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Document Details :

Title: Bar Hebraeus on Evil
Subtitle: Christian Philosophy between Arabic Neoplatonism and Islamic Theology
Author(s): BENEVICH, Fedor
Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies
Volume: 73    Issue: 3-4   Date: 2021   
Pages: 191-218
DOI: 10.2143/JECS.73.3.3289997

Abstract :
The aim of this paper is to present an account of how Christian philosophy develops in its Islamic philosophical and theological context. I will focus on the philosophical thought of Gregory Bar Hebraeus (d. 1286). I will show that Bar Hebraeus attempts to harmonize the Neoplatonic Avicennian ontological theory of good and evil with the ethical theories of his contemporary Islamic philosophical theology (primarily, Aš'arism) as well as materials taken from Christian sources. From Avicenna, Bar Hebraeus takes the idea the evil is privation. From the Aš'arites, Bar Hebraeus inherits moral consequentialism and the divine command theory.