Chapter 8 Ramon Llull on Universal Values
A Bridge between Christianity and Islam
In: From the Greeks to the Arabs and BeyondPurchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
Ramon Llull was convinced of the superiority of the Christian Trinitarian belief. In addition, he developed an interesting idea, the concept of universal values which are shared by Christianity and Islam. His starting point is his theology of divine attributes common to Christianity and Islam. These attributes, like “virtue”, “goodness” and “justice”, describe God’s essence and are simultaneously mirrored in God’s acting. At the same time, the divine attributes are mirrored – in an imperfect way – in the ethical qualities of man, who should imitate God’s exemplary acting and strive after perfection. Here, Ramon Llull assumes “some similarity of man to God”. Infidels and Christians share the same values, the same universal human reason and the concept of God’s will of universal salvation. Therefore, the conversion of infidels to Christianity could use concepts which were familiar to infidels. The vehicle of universal values is any language, not only Latin, Catalan, Arabic or Hebrew. Therefore, Llull’s versified book on Cent noms de Déu is written with the persuasion, that divine attributes play the same role in Islam and Christianity. Consequently, the common names of God, that is “goodness”, “greatness”, “eternity”, “power”, “wisdom”, “love” and “perfection”, are shared by Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and became the basis of the dialogue between the three religions. These virtues have counterparts in the created virtues, man’s justice, prudence, bravery, moderation, belief, hope and love. They are universally valid human values, which constitute the dignity of man, as also later in Renaissance humanism. They are cornerstones of a global ethic and guidelines for tolerance between religions and cultures.