Zusammenfassung / Summary
In his Disputatio christiani cum gentili Gilbert Crispin (born around 1045, died 1117), pupil and friend of Anselm of Canterbury, stages a debate between a Christian and a pagan philosopher who believes in the existence of a singular God only on grounds of reason and is not willing to accept texts of revelation. The topics debated concern incarnation and trinity, as well as interpretational problems relating to the exegesis of revealed writings. Through the particular dramaturgy of the debate, this paper argues, Gilbert presents in an exemplary way the ambivalence of inter-religious conversations between monotheists of different theoretical origin. He succeeds in doing so by outlining on the one hand the disputants’ anticipated agreement, based on their shared fundamental conviction of monotheism, and on the other hand by efficiently documenting such an encounter’s potential for conflict, also based on their shared monotheistic concept of God.