Jesus in the Koran; with Regards to Islamic As Well As Christian Traditions and the Person of Virgin Mary

Different perception of the person of Jesus Christ remains to be among the most frequent and challenging questions of the dialogue between Christianity and Islam. Intention of this work is therefore to introduce at least basic elements of qur'ānic christology, i. e. the peculiar "word" of the Qur'ān about identity and mission of Jesus. It follows the fascinating process by which one religious tradition or culture adopted and assimilated the towering figure of another tradition and embraced it in its own conceptions of history of prophecy and of revelation from God. It further compares controversial attitudes of the Qur'ān (and let us say of Islam generally), such as refutation of Christian dogmas of the divinity of Jesus or the Holy Trinity, with creeds and statements of Christian christology; it devotes special attention to the person and story of Virgin Mary either. Within its explanation the work attempts to search out eventual origins or sources of the specific Islamic appreciation of Jesus, especially in Christian, canonical or apocryphal traditions. To emphasize the significance which is attributed to the mission of Jesus by Islamic orthodoxy and ordinary believers the essay refers also to the perspectives and narrations of later Islamic tradition which embellishes and elaborates qur'ānic indications..