Abstract
The currently existing type of dialogue of Western and Eastern cultures makes a philosophical exploration of Christianity and Islam compelling as they are fundamental monotheistic religions capable of ensuring the peaceful interaction of various ethnic cultures in the age of deepening secularization. The present analysis of the philosophical and epistemological teachings of the Greek Byzantine Church Fathers and the thinkers of classical Arab-Islamic culture aims at overcoming stereotypes regarding the opposition of Christianity and Islam that strongly permeate both scholarly theorizing and contemporary social discourses. The authors scrutinize the epistemological principles of the exoteric and esoteric knowledge of the Islamic Golden Age and the apophatic and cataphatic ways of attaining the knowledge of God in Early Christianity. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the concepts of personal mystical comprehension of God in Sufism (fanā’) and in Christianity (Uncreated Light).
Highlights
The contemporary world is culturally and religiously diverse and may be confusing and sometimes even threateningly unpeaceful in the perception of people belonging to different socio-cultural communities
To realize the goal of considering the various ways of religious gnosis created within the framework of Arab-Muslim and East Christian directions of the Middle Ages, the authors trace the historical formation of exoteric and esoteric forms of knowledge of Islam in the context of comparative analysis with the cataphatic and apophatic Christian theology
Maximus the Confessor in his Mystagogy divides everything existing into two worlds
Summary
The contemporary world is culturally and religiously diverse and may be confusing and sometimes even threateningly unpeaceful in the perception of people belonging to different socio-cultural communities. To realize the goal of considering the various ways of religious gnosis created within the framework of Arab-Muslim and East Christian directions of the Middle Ages, the authors trace the historical formation of exoteric and esoteric forms of knowledge of Islam in the context of comparative analysis with the cataphatic and apophatic Christian theology. These types of religious knowledge aimed for their followers to comprehend the meanings of the scriptures of Islam and Christianity in various ways, justifying the opposite methods of interpretation of the sacred texts of both religions. Let us dwell on the features of the religions’ epistemological systems formed in the Middle Ages
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