Philosophy of religion
Year:2011 | Volume:8 | Issue:9|Papers Count:8

The present essay considers the relationship between intellect and revelation from Allameh Tabatabaii’s point of view. According to his view point intellect is prior to revelation and the concepts which derived from intellect and revelation will prove this claim. Secondly, we will consider the reasons of precedence of intellect according to the documents and some of his works.With reviewing the principles designed by Tabatabaii, it seems that the issue of contradiction between intellect and revelation is basically obviated; because two elements of the threefold conditions of certainty of revelation are mainly evaluated by philosophical intellect. Thus, plenary revelation that is completely in contrast to absolute intellect will never obtain.Among many considerable points concerning interpretation of this relationship, three basic points, that used by Allameh Tabatabaii, are as follow:-Identity of philosophy and intellect;- Outcome of authority of tradition from philosophical method;- Independence of Quranic proofs.

Dionysius is one of the most important personages in Christian Mystic that some of his ideas were up to now popular ideas in Christian theosophy, Theology and Philosophy. Christian Doctrine and Neo-platonic Ideas are viewed as two main sources for his opinions; although he sometimes leans to one and the rest to another. For example, in discussion about Creation, Angelology and Trinity he tended to Neo-platonic Ideas.The scope of his main studies can be as following: believe in Hierarchy system of the world, taking the relationship between faith and reason into consideration, making difference between appearance and reality of the Bible, and acceptance of several kinds of Theology. The importance of Hierarchical world in his ideas is so important that we can call him "the scientist of Hierarchy". Moreover, his believe in a negative form of theology is well-known in Christianity.His influence on middle age thinkers and afterward, on philosophers, poets and belletrists is likewise notable.

Radhakrishnan is one of the prominent Indian contemporary thinkers. He is under the influence of the Vedanta cult; yet there are certain elements of Hegelian idealism, Whitehead and Schleiermacher’s philosophy in his views. Vedanta school is the most perfect and most traditional school of philosophy in India that majority of contemporary Indian thinkers such as Vivekananda, Aurobindo, and Rabindranat Tagore inspire from it.The teachings of this school have rooted in Upanishads which considered as the most important source of Indian philosophical and mystical schools. Vedanta school is based on Advaita (non-dualism), and Shankara and Ramanuja have presented different interpretations from it. Radhakrishnan in some of his works was under the influence of Shankara and in some others under Ramanuja’s influence; although sometimes he tried to reconcile them.Radhakrishnan paid special attention to the issue of religion and in most of his works, particularly in his treatment of the Eastern and Western philosophies referred to it.

The key of salvation; as we all know is Faith. For this reason: 1) philosophers and theologians of any religion have tried to determine its essence and to explain its nature. 2) These debates have been very important in Islam and Christianity from the beginning.One of the issues that have close connection with concept as well as the formation of faith, is "act". Now the question that raises here is as follow: how is the relationship between faith and act? Is the case so that righteous action leads man into faith, or it is mainly outcome of faith?The present paper is concerned with the conceptual analysis of faith according to Morjaeh (one of the early Islamic sects) and Protestantism (one of the three major Christian sects). I think that these two sects agree with each other in this issue that "action is not the essential pillar of faith".

There are various aspects and dimensions in Christian religion which attracted the attention of mystics. One of these aspects is the doctrine of trinity. The Moslem theosophists, like other groups of scholars, have had a reaction against this issue and have criticized it.However, there are some differences in mystic’s viewpoints in comparison with that of other scholars, especially the theologians. So, this article intends to study this issue from the viewpoint of a number of outstanding Moslem Mystics, and provide a general acquaintance toward their ideas about Christian trinity.The article comes to the conclusion that, there is no consensus among mystics about the Christian trinity, and there are to some extent both tolerance and open-mindedness, and also criticism and rejection about it. Yet, in comparison with other non-mystics viewpoints, mystics tend to reveal some tolerance and verification which can originate from their peculiar doctrines, characteristics and views toward the existence.

The philosophy of kalam science is an external view about kalam that focuses on conceptual and confirmative principles like: definition, subject, the origins of emanation, approaches, historical stages, and other general criteria. From martyr Motahharii’s point of view the function of kalam, as a completely Islamic knowledge is the clarification of Islamic proofs and defense of religious misgivings.In this article we will demonstrate that according to Martyr Motahharii’s definition the most important positive aspect of kalam is its clarification. Unlike many other predecessor and contemporary theologians (Motekallemin), he believe that kalam is not limited to a singular and particular subject; rather it encompasses Islamic beliefs and religious principles.Moreover, he holds that there is some kind of cooperation between philosophy and kalam. While in one hand, kalam has forced philosophy to accept new issues; On the other hand, philosophy has brought significant development about science of kalam.In addition, he believes that the distinctive feature of shi’ite kalam is that it includes both rational and transmitted aspect. Since it stems from the heart of Hadith and mixed with philosophy as well.

In this paper I will review the possibility, meaning and importance of comparative studies. Although there are some increasing activities in this field, there are some obstacles in this comparison. These difficulties arise from hermeneutical meanings of the problems and the cultural diversities and the different approaches in the same problems.These matters bring the suspicion of impossibility and effectiveness of comparative philosophy in mind. But if so, then all kinds of mutual understanding would be meaningless and absurd. I believe that all comparative studies must be aware of those obstacles and try to overcome them more and more to reach a more true comparison. Then, I will examine meanings of comparative philosophy and point out to the importance and necessity of such studies.We need to comparative studies for more global intercultural relations, and for solving the apparent conflicts between humankind, nations or cultures that have deep misunderstandings of each other.