A Comparative Study of Religion and Ethics in Muʿtazilite Views and the Christian Theology of Philip Quinn

The present article compares the views of the main Mu'tazilite thinkers on the relationship between religion and morality with the more modern views of Philip Quinn, a contemporary Christian philosopher. The necessity of this study is due to the wide and always controversial issue of the relationship between religious and moral rules and the relationship between religion and ethics in the fields of ontology, epistemology and normative theory. In the subject under discussion, we find Mu'tazilite views containing considerations restricted to human-rational relations. Because of this enduring commitment to moral fundamentalism, they have established an independent trend in the Islamic world and the world of religious thinking. In contrast to this approach that is based on moral independence, the quasi-poetic view of Philip Quinn in the contemporary Christian world can be proposed. By proposing the total dependence of morality on religion, Quinn hypothesizes the Christian and God-centered belief as the bedrock of the development of moral life. However, this belief is not only practically immature, but also unacceptable in light of the common moral and epistemological intuitions.