RELIGIOUS INQUIRIES
Year:2016 | Volume:5 | Issue:9|Papers Count:7

In this paper, an investigation on the relation between state-building and Near Eastern religion is attempted. Analyzing the city-state of Ḥaṭrā (Iraq, close to Kirkuk), it is demonstrated that pre-Islamic state craft in the region was dependent on the initiative of the Parthian monarchy in Iran. The kings of the Arsacid dynasty attempted to bestow the local Arabic tribes in the Jazira with a cultic center that would serve as a stronghold against Rome/Byzantium. The deity most venerated in Ḥaṭrā was the Sungod, Šamaš, the same as in Palmyra (Tadmor), Edessa (Urfa), and Emesa (Homs). It is of crucial importance, that since Constantine the Great venerated the Sungod before becoming a Christian, the combination between Greek and Iranian art on the border of the two empires became the basis of Christian art. Ḥaṭrā, a point of cross-cultural fusion between the East and the West, is now very much endangered as the troops of the "Islamic" State have destroyed the until recently well-preserved ruins.

Among the most important Jewish encounters with other cultures and civilizations, the encounter with Islamic culture was, in our view, the most important. This encounter was in some aspects like their encounter with the ancient civilization, but the impacts were more valuable and constructive. Under Islamic rule, the Jews not only had a sense of security but also enjoyed a relatively satisfactory freedom of thought and religion. Their encounter with Islamic theology was more through their acquaintance with Mu'tazilite theology, which emerged at the beginning of the eighth century, and it was this encounter that resulted in theological and philosophical systematization in Jewish thought.The impacts of Mu'tazilite theology on Jewish theological thought can be found in three areas: (1) content-oriented impacts, (2) methodological impacts, and (3) systematization of theology and philosophy.

One of the recent inquiries in the field of hadith studies is the investigation of transferred traditions and their causes and impacts on Shi‘i hadith circles. By exploring some traditions in the hadith collection of al-Shaykh al-Saduq and comparing the textual similarities and also the chain of transmitters, this research attempts to show that traditions of Jewish origin in the Shi‘i hadith circles are often transferred traditions and more care and attention should be paid in transmitting and relying on them. However, such traditions in the Imami School are but few and had less chance of appearance, mainly because the Sunni transmitters of such traditions were critiqued and the Imams of the household of the Prophet, peace be upon them, stood against the transmission of these traditions and restrained their effect on the Shi‘i scholars of hadith.

Marriage holds a special position in different cultures and religions. Despite differences in the limits and conditions of marriage, religions have many similarities in regard to the issue of marriage. This research paper is a comparative study of marriage in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The findings reveal that all three traditions recognize marriage to have a sacred nature, and they all stress that all sexual needs must be satisfied through marriage. Islam and Judaism encourage marriage, while Christianity has some differences in this respect.

This paper has three parts. In the first part, we bring to the fore an ancient Vedic concept of mesocosm and discuss its religious and cosmic significance within Indian religion. This part also brings an initial approach towards philosophy of spirituality by focusing on the role of breath within the very concept of mesocosm. In the second part, based on our preliminary analysis, we present an original account on triades and Trinitarian thinking in some of the religious traditions by discussing the following questions: (1) What does the triade as a concept bring to theology and religious studies? (2) How could it be understood as a form, representing the most perfect model for the sacred correlation between divine and for the human Being? (3) How is it related to the idea of the "Third Presence," the relational link between One and Two as primeval ontological realms? In the third and concluding part, we return to the ancient Indoeuropean religion by discussing the mediatory role of the Indo-Iranian Mit(h)ra.

In the 90s, a remarkable number of manuscripts were found in Northern Afghanistan, including economic documents, legal documents, and letters, which have become an important resource for academic studies. This paper aims to investigate the Bactrian pantheon as reflected in the economic documents of this collection. At first, these economic documents and the pantheon mentioned in them are introduced. After that, the names of the gods that were commonly used in people’s names are studied, and finally the gods of the Bactrian pantheon are discussed in detail. The conclusion is that the names of the gods in the Bactrian pantheon are not Indian but Iranian, and also the gods themselves are rather pre-Zoroastrian than originally Zoroastrian.

In this article, in order to demonstrate the pragmatic elements of Rawls’s viewpoint, the developmental path of his A Theory of Justice shall first be investigated. This development has two phases: In the first phase, justice has an ethical-philosophical basis. In A Theory of Justice, this phase is specifically shown under the title of theory of justice. In the second phase, justice has no philosophical basis, but, as Rawls says, political justice is included. The main purpose of this article is to show the path of Rawls’s theory of justice from an ethical viewpoint to a political one. Rawls, himself, points out this transition, but the main problem is how Rawls arrives at a pragmatic viewpoint. In Rawls’s time, this viewpoint was brought to life by Richard Rorty in a particular way. Rawls is not interested in this viewpoint, but these elements indicate the above-mentioned transition. These elements are pluralism, society as a fair system of cooperation, public reason, and overlapping consensus. Although these elements are implied in A Theory of Justice and have Kantian basis, in his Political Liberalism, Rawls articulates these elements and eliminates metaphysical, religious, or any kind of doctrine from principles of justice and arrives at a practical viewpoint on justice.