RELIGIOUS RESEARCH (PAJOUHESHHA YE ADYANI)
Year:2017 | Volume:5 | Issue:9 |Papers Count:6

Impermissibility of divorce in Christianity and canons deriving from it, like privation of participation in Holy Communion, always causes many difficulties for Christians, particularly for Catholics. In contemporary world the problems, such as civil marriage without following Christian laws and cohabitation in which two persons live together without any canonical and formal marriage, has confronted the church with a great challenge. Finding out that it is necessary to present new ideas about family issues, some theologians like Hans Kung has demanded to reform and alter marriage and divorce laws. In contrast, traditional theologians persist in keeping Christian traditions and speak purely of more pastoral cares, without any alterations in laws. Meanwhile, some theologians like cardinal Kasper, though considering the prohibition of divorce as a dogmatic and inconvertible law, sympathetically accept reconsidering the established divorce dictums in the church. General demands and new ideas of Christian thinkers made the church to form an episcopal council and make decision on the subject. This council didn' t make any changes in the biblical laws related to divorce, but showed some flexibility toward its consequences and permitted participation in the Eucharist in the case of the local church identification. This flexibility shows that, though the alteration of Christian dogmas and laws is difficult, it is possible to alter some Christian laws.

Manichaean scholars have frequently suggested that the faith is taken from the gnostic. Gnostics have chosen Johannes' gospel among canonical gospels because it contains many gnostic elements regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ and crucifixion. Since Mani and Manicheans, as Al-Biruni has said, believed that the canonical gospels were apocryphal, they did not consider them as religious sources. The present article tries to show that Manicheans have used Johannes' gospel directly and indirectly for the gnostic elements in it; so the researcher has chosen one of the Parthian Manichean texts which is about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, (the text edited by Enrico Murano) and then has compared it with Johannes' narration about crucifixion to show the gnostic elements of Parthian Manichean text.

The Golden rule in ethics states that "one should treat others as one would like others to treat him" or "One should love others as he would love himself". But an important question here arises: who are "the others"? Do they include just the followers of the religion, or everyone? The answer to this important and also challenging question leads to the following question: do moral teachings of the Bible only apply to Christians? Many immoral conducts inside a religion and between two different religions have their roots in the above-mentioned basic question and most of them have happened in the name of religion when believers have committed the wrong for the sake of God. This essay studies this issue from the Biblical point of view and its interpretation. There are different views concerning this issue. For some interpreters "the others" includes everyone, and moral teachings of the Bible apply to all people, including Christians and non-Christians. Some other interpreters have made a distinction between Christians and non-Christians by explaining the concept of "perfect and complete love". They maintain that the "perfect love" which is the love in behavior and heart together, only applies to Christian. In this essay, we refer to the most important interpretations and finally study different views in this regard.

In this paper, I offer a reception history of the Qur' anic verses on the hijab -- 33: 59 and 24: 31. The interpretation of these verses have changed over time, with a major turning point being the beginning of thex Islamic Reform toward the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. In pre-modern interpretations, exegetes usually explained veiling based on the distinction between free women and slave ones. It was, in this sense, a mark of free women. Modesty was to be preserved if a woman stayed in the seclusion of her house, with limited mobility. However, in modern times, the interpretations changed. The major reason for observing the hijab in modern interpretations is the protection of individual and social modesty. Several factors may be involved in this change: the emergence of rational interpretation in the Islamic Reform, the abolishment of slavery, and women' s active presence in the society. This change in interpretation can also be explained through liberationist theories on "reverse discourse".

Studying the Elamiteera, as an important period of the history of Persia, paves the way to study the other historical periods such as the Achaemenid. Studies reveal that religious beliefs of the Elamite, a complex outcome of their geographical, cultural and historical interactions with Mesopotamian civilization, survives even after the political extinction of Elam. This paper surveys those Elamite gods and religious Symbols that were still being respected and worshiped during the Achaemenid era and even after that period, due to various reasons. Based on a descriptive-analytical method of study, the paper concludes that Elamite gods and religious symbols were still being respected and worshiped during the Achaemenid era but in a transformed or distorted manner. And they were of a great importance, whether directly or symbolically in artworks.

Comparing to other Buddhist sects, Mahayana Buddhism is of more religious cohesion, and its integration has an important role in its inner cohesion and development to other cultures. Having such qualities as religious tolerance, flexibility and explicable teachings have had outstanding role on its propagation. Some of scholars believe that systematic formulation of Mahayana’s theology is due to philosophical and mystical dissemination of traditional Buddhism (Theravada), having impressed by non-Buddhist religions and cultures, and harmony with aboriginal cultures and religious traditions. Hinduism’s effects on Buddhism is observable not only in cosmology and Mahayana gods, but also in its rituals and literature. Iranian culture has affected Buddhism mainly on Buddha-ology, soteriology and creation of personal gods of Mahayana (bodhisattva) and it seems that Greek culture has inspired sacred art and iconography. The main purpose of this survey, which has been done through descriptive-analytical method, is identification and explanation of the effects of non-Buddhist cultures on Mahayana Buddhism’s religious cohesion; and it, based on the presupposition of outstanding religious scholars, refers to some evidence of the influences of Hindu, Iranian, Greek, Christianity and Islamic religious cultures on Mahayana construction as a religious system.