The question of how Orthodox Christians should relate to members of other faiths has taken on particular urgency in the past few decades given the rising pluralism of our globalized world. Moreover, this question has particular urgency with respect to Muslims, with whom Orthodox Christians have had particularly close and complex social and political relationships since the seventh century. In this essay, I argue that a systematic and academic consideration of Islam and Islamic history is an important desideratum of contemporary Orthodox theology. Specifically, I suggest that the question Orthodox theologians should seek to answer with respect to Islam is: Does the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church take a specific theological position toward Islam?

In order to answer this question, I argue that Orthodox theologians should use the philosophical categories of patristic theological anthropology to draw insights from the specific data of common historical experience between Orthodox Christians and Muslims. This essay provides a discussion of some of the best academic literature available on the topic of Orthodox theological approaches to Islam, and suggests ways forward based on the accomplishments of the scholars discussed here.