Disputation

Disputation is a genre of literature involving two contenders who seek to establish a resolution to a problem or establish the superiority of something. An example of the latter is in Sumerian disputation poems.

In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations (in Latin: disputationes, singular: disputatio) offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences. Fixed rules governed the process: they demanded dependence on traditional written authorities and the thorough understanding of each argument on each side.

In the ancient Near East, disputation was a popular genre of literature that went back at least to the mid-3rd millennium BC with the onset of Sumerian disputations, followed by the first Akkadian-language disputations which began in the 18th century BC. Sumerian and Akkadian language disputations had some discontinuity, insofar as different topics were discussed, different literary conventions were used, and none of the later Akkadian disputations appear to be translations of earlier Sumerian disputations. The two most well-attested Sumerian disputations are the Debate between the hoe and the plough and the Debate between sheep and grain.

Many disputations were composed in the Syriac language, including the Dispute Between the Cherub and the Thief and the Dispute Between Heaven and Earth.

A significant category of disputations took place between Christian and Jewish theologians as a form of both theological and philosophical debate and proselytization. Often, the Christian side was represented by a recent convert from Judaism. The only way for the Jewish side to 'win' was to force a draw by drawing the Christian side into a position in which it was necessary to deny the Old Testament to win, committing heresy.^{[citation needed]} According to Michael J. Cook, "Since 'winning' a debate could well jeopardize the security of the Jewish community at large, political considerations certainly entered into what Jewish disputants publicly said or refrained from saying. ... Official transcripts of these proceedings, moreover, may not duplicate what actually transpired; in some places what they record was not the live action, as it were, but Christian polemical revision composed after the fact."

Some disputations also appeared in the Islamic world, including one between a pen and a sword, attributed to Ahmad Ibn Burd al-Asghar in the 11th century.

Martin Luther opened the Protestant Reformation by demanding a disputation upon his 95 theses, 31 October 1517. Although presented as a call to an ordinary scholastic dispute, there is no evidence that such an event ever took place.

During a convention held at Heidelberg in April 1518, Luther directed a dispute on 28 theological and 12 philosophical theses. He was successful in winning over Johannes Brenz and the Dominican Martin Bucer.