Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2017

ledge — God's knowledge — as the source and cause of all other knowledge. 53 The Qur'an and Hadith are the means by which True knowledge is transmitted to humanity. 54 As human knowledge comes to mirror Qur'anic knowledge, it can be said to be True knowledge. 55 Philosophy and reason are held by al-Ghazali as potentially beneficial tools, depending on whether they are used to support and enable deeper understanding of True knowledge. While al-Ghazali's high view of secular sciences may seem to contradict his assertion of revelation's primacy in relation to reason, his framework maintains the primacy of revelation and its accompanying religious sciences as the more valuable of the two kinds of sciences. 56 Philosophy and theology exist in inseparable relationship whereby faith seeks understanding using reason when it is beneficial. In summary, al-Ghazali's concept of the relationship between faith and reason holds that the two are compatible, as long as the proper prioritisation is given to revelation. His thinking in this regard echoes in other significant thinkers in the Middle Ages. 57 Reason corresponds with and is supported by faith in order to obtain certainty. Conversely, only forms of knowledge that correspond with divine revelation are valuable for faith. This binary valuation of knowledge along with his theology of revelation with reference to the Qur'an and Islamic tradition, however, will have serious implications for his philosophy of education, as we will see in the next section. Faith and Reason in al-Ghazali's Philosophy of Education While al-Ghazali wrote about education extensively, his account is not a systematic philosophy of education. Educational ideas are included, instead, as implications from other topics. Alavi notes that al-Ghazali's educational thinking has not received the same scholarly attention as his philosophy, 52 Hilgendorf, p. 69. 53 Griffel, ‘Al-Ghazali’, sec. 6. 54 Mark Halstead, p. 520; Perry Shaw, ‘Madrasa and Church: A Comparative Study of Muslim and Christian Approaches to Religious Education’, Theological Review, 22.2 (2001), 216-44 (p. 203). 55 Halstead, ‘Islamic Concept’, p. 520; Nofal, p. 523. 56 Nofal, p. 526. 57 For example, Aquinas' concept of theology as the rational elucidation of revelation. For further discussion and examples, see John Caputo, Philosophy and Theology’ (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2006), pp. 21- 34. 66 Journal of European Baptist Studies 17:1 (2017) politics, mysticism, and religious views. 58 A full treatment of al-Ghazali's educational thinking involves critical synthesis of his ideas from a wide variety of sources, a task beyond the scope of this article. Here I trace connections between his epistemology and elements of his educational philosophy, again relying on the synthesis of others’ critical readings of al- Ghazali. Finally, I will return to consideration of the influence of al-Ghazali's thinking on concepts