AQUINAS

"On Reasons for Our Faith Against the Muslims, Greeks and Armenians: Letter to the Cantor of Antioch"  (edited with notes and Introduction by James Likoudis and also containing the famous 1879 Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII: "Aeterni Patris" - On the Restoration of Christian Philosophy According to the Mind of St. Thomas Aquinas)

On September 24, 2001, speaking in Astana, Kazahstan, Pope John Paul II declared:

"I wish to reaffirm the Catholic Church's respect for Islam, for authentic Islam: the Islam that prays, that is concerned for those in need. Recalling the errors of the past, including the most recent past, all believers ought to unite their efforts to ensure that God is never made the hostage of human ambitions. Hatred, fanaticism and terrorism profane the name of God and disfigure the true image of man."

World events and increased contacts with Muslim adherents to the different branches of Islam are already resulting in increased religious dialogue between Muslims and Catholics. As the Pope in the above address noted: "The Church has no wish to impose her own faith on others; however, this does not exempt the Lord's disciples from communicating the great gift which they have received: life in Christ."

In this brief work St. Thomas Aquinas meets major objections to the Incarnation of the Son of God and other Catholic doctrines posed by Muslim scholars. He also refutes the arguments of certain dissident Greeks and Armenians who in the 13th century denied the existence of a purgatory.

As James Likoudis observes in his Introduction to this brief work of the Angelic Doctor ably translated by Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, STD, FFI, "It remains that few Muslims have a real understanding of Christianity... [St. Thomas'] writings retain their value for the future theological dialogue with Muslims."