Christian and Muslim gnosis of the medieval age

Abstract

The authors of the article present a comparative philosophical analysis of the epistemological concepts of the Greek Byzantine Holy Fathers and the Arab-Islamic thinkers of the Middle Ages. Using the prime sources, the authors consider the elaborated traditions and practices of theosophy, united by the uplifting and transforming personal-mystical ascension to the Creator. The God-knowing process is presented as a way of self-cognition and self-development, as a spiritual-moral (deifying) rise and as a special religious-ecstatic individual unity with God. In this special context, attention is paid to the epistemological principles of the religious, mystical teaching of Sufism of the Islamic Golden Age and the Christian monasticism of the early ages of Christianity. These principles help to understand how sacred information
is transmitted to society and allow us to establish the interaction of people of different ethnic cultures and religions on the basis of common values and moral norms. The authors scrutinize the Al-Ghazali’s concept of the “soul vision” of the Creator in Sufism (Fana), and the Symeon the New Theologian’s concept of achieving the unity with God through the perception of the Uncreated Light. The authors adhere to the theoretical position that it is religious gnosis based on philosophical and anthropological ideas that make it possible to talk about the closeness of Christianity and Islam and partially overcome the stereotypes established in social science about the contradiction between these religions.

Keywords:

Christianity, Islam, eastern patristics, Byzantine philosophy, Sufism, fana’, uncreated light, deification, asceticism, Al-Ghazali, John Climacus, Symeon the New Theologian