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[ 52 ] the rise and fall of soul and self
As a result, later Christians increasingly interpreted personal survival dualisti-
cally. The resurrection, then, came to imply the resurrection of the body—not the
resurrection of the person—and the soul, following Plato, was thought to be
immaterial and independent of the body. In later developments of this view, Philo
became a key source for reinterpreting the doctrine of the resurrection in the Old
Testament. Inevitably, then, relying on him as a guide to the theology of the Old
Testament encouraged a Platonic interpretation of the New Testament doctrine
of the resurrection. In the end, Philo’s impact on early Christian beliefs became
greater than it had been on Judaism, although Judaism would also move in
the
direction of distinguishing soul and body, with the soul being immaterial and
immortal and the body requiring an independent resurrection.
Islam
The great political and religious unifier in Islamic civilization was Muhammad
(570?-632 c.e.), who was born at Mecca into a family of modest means. At the
age of twenty-five, he married a wealthy widow but retained his tendency to be
critical of materialism and social injustice. At age thirty-five he began to make
annual spiritual retreats alone in the desert. In 610, at age forty, he received his
first revelation and began to preach. Subsequent revelations came at irregular
intervals over a period of twenty years. Muhammad thought that these revela-
tions, which he took to be delivered to him by the angel Gabriel, came directly
from God and were perfect transcriptions of an eternal tablet preserved in
Heaven. Between 650 and 651, the record of Muhammad’s revelations was com-
piled into the Qur’an, which consists of 114 chapters (surahs) of unequal length.
Its basic message is a call to all Arabs to surrender to God’s will. The imperative
to recognize no God but Allah is reiterated throughout these scriptures.
Muhammad was convinced that God had chosen him to be the final prophet.
Abraham, Moses, and Jesus were prophets. But in Muhammad’s view, Jesus was
not the son of God. Jews and Christians had strayed from the true faith, the one
that had been revealed to him. An example of a way they had strayed is that by
accepting the doctrine of the Trinity, Christianity had sullied its claim to being
monotheistic. Muhammad’s task was to convert the Jews and Christians to the
true word. In 622, he left Mecca for the northern city of Medina, where he cre-
ated an Islamic community for which he laid down strict rules. Alcohol, gam-
bling, and usury were prohibited, as was infanticide. His community grew in
strength. In 624, he returned to Mecca and made it the center of the new reli-
gion. In 632, he died.
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