Mystical Knowledge and the Limits of Reason: A Comparative Study of al-Ghazālī and Gregory Palamas
Sophia April 16, 2026 Milad Milani, Zolt Salontai
Al-Ghazālī and Gregory Palamas both resisted the overintellectualization of theology through Greek philosophical categories, critiquing Aristotelian and Platonic conceptions of knowledge for abstracting the divine and reducing metaphysical inquiry to rational demonstration. Al-Ghazālī turned to Sufism and the epistemology of kashf ("unveiling"), grounding knowledge of God in direct, transformative spiritual experience. Palamas defended the Eastern Christian tradition of hesychia, asserting that divine energies can be encountered in contemplative prayer (theōria) as a step towards union or divinisation (theosis). The article explores parallels between al-Ghazālī's distinction between speculative knowledge and spiritual certainty and Palamas' essence-energies distinction, both affirming non-conceptual participation in the divine. Drawing on Heidegger's later thought, the article considers both figures as pointing toward truth as "unconcealment" (aletheia) rather than propositional mastery, though without asserting identical conclusions.