ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concept of revelation and the finality of religion: both the Christian and Muslim scriptures link finality with Jesus and Muhammad. It then explores Christian and Muslim understandings of God and God's relation to the world. The Christian and Muslim medieval worlds were inherently exclusivist, both in their internal and external relations, although some theologians on both sides did discuss the salvation of nonbelievers. This internal exclusivity is patent in the decrees of the Ecumenical Church Councils, which created doctrinal barriers between internal divisions, such as the exclusion of the monophysites from the wider Church after the Council of Chalcedon. The Christian belief in the Trinity and the way in which the persons of the Trinity interact with the human realm, alongside the Muslim stress on the oneness of God, underlies much of Christian–Muslim relations and polemic on both sides. This can be seen in the earliest interaction between Christians and Muslims.
