ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly describes the Summa Theologiae Arabica and surveys the Summa's reflections of the presence of Islam and the influence of the religious challenges which Muslims posed for Christians in the caliphate. It draws out the hints about the continuity of Melkite church life in the ninth-century caliphate which the Summa affords the opportunity to discern. The chapter focuses on the fact that the kalam itself, the Arabic language of the discourse in this work of Christian apologetics. It deals with Islamic religious vocabulary, and with Arabic expressions which put the apologetic arguments in the Summa squarely within the framework of a reply to the Qur'an's rhetorical challenges to the Christians. Arabic works of Christian theology such as the Summa make it clear that during the ninth century there was a concerted effort in the Melkite community to provide for the continuity of Chalcedonian orthodoxy in the Arabic speaking caliphate.
