religions Article Knowing God in Eastern Christianity and Islamic Tradition: A Comparative Study Nur Kirabaev and Olga Chistyakova * Department of History of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 6, Miklukho Maklaya Street, 117198 Moscow, Russia;
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[email protected] Received: 11 October 2020; Accepted: 11 December 2020; Published: 17 December 2020 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 (fana¯’) and in Christianity (Uncreated Light). Keywords: Christianity; Islam; Eastern Patristics; Sufism; fana’¯ ; uncreated light; deification; religious epistemology 1. Introduction 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. Interreligious relations in a multicultural world present a contemporary person with the idea of the other way of knowing God, religion, and hence another, different religious self-identity.