Professor Frank Griffel

Frank Griffel is Professor of the Study of Abrahamic Religions at Oxford University and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. He has published widely in the fields of Islamic philosophy and theology as well as Muslim intellectual history. After working on apostasy in Islam and on the leading theologian and philosopher al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), Griffel turned his interest toward the history of philosophy in Islam and Judaism, particularly during Islam’s post-classical period after the 11th century. He publishes in English and in German and his books have been translated into Turkish and Arabic. Griffel is also the Louis M. Rabinowitz Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Yale University. 

Conflicts between reason-based knowledge and faith-based knowledge in pre-modern Islam, Judaism and Christianity; conflicts between philosophy and religious authority, religious tolerance in the pre-modern period.

The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. 

Den Islam denken. Versuch, eine Religion zu verstehen [How to Think About Islam. An Essay on Understanding a Religion.] Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag, 2018. 

Al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Apostasie und Toleranz im Islam. Die Entwicklung zu al-Ġazālīs Urteil gegen die Philosophie und die Reaktionen der Philosophen [Apostasy and Tolerance in Islam. The development that led to al-Ghazālī’s condemnation of philosophy and the reactions from the side of the philosophers.] Leiden: Brill 2000.

Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazālī. Papers Collected on His 900th Anniversary. Volume 2 (out of 2). Edited Volume. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Shari’a: Islamic Law in the Contemporary Context. Edited together with Abbas Amanat. Stanford (Calif.): Stanford University Press, 2007.