ABSTRACT
From the beginning of Christian–Muslim encounters, much discussion has focused on the person and status of Muḥammad. This chapter cannot cover everything that Christians have written on Muḥammad over almost fifteen hundred years; it certainly cannot cite all relevant texts. What it does set out to do is to summarise, with reference to representative sources and contributors, the main contours of Christian thinking on Muḥammad, and especially to highlight what might be described as significant developments or changes. What follows will show that the majority of Christians have had little positive to say about him, denying that he was God’s prophet, often suggesting or asserting that he served Satan or his own immoral and selfish interests. It should also be said, at the outset, that many Christians continue to hold negative views of Muḥammad. The best-selling books on Muḥammad by Christians today are those written by evangelicals for whom Muslims and Christians do not even worship the same God. For these Christians, there is no common ground between Christianity and Islam. Given this negativity, which persists, one main aim of this chapter is to identify anything that shifts away from total hostility towards a more positive view of Muḥammad, that is, towards affirming that some common ground exists between Islam and Christianity.
