RELIGIOUS RESEARCH (PAJOUHESHHA YE ADYANI)
Year:2019 | Volume:7 | Issue:13 |Papers Count:12

A group of Western Quranic researchers, who maintain that the Qur‟ an believes in the distortion of the Torah and the Gospel, have sought to accounted for the Quranic belief in distortion by an appeal to the existence of a Jewish-Christian sect, known as Ebionites, in the pre-Islamic era. In their view, this sect believed in the distortion of the Torah and/or the Gospel. In this paper, I sidestep the minor premise of the argument, that is, the Quranic belief in the distortion of the Torah and the Gospel, and concern myself with its major premise and the conclusion. With a survey of the earliest historical sources about Ebionites, I show that there is no reliable evidence that Ebionites believed in the distortion of the Bible. Even if we trust unreliable sources and admit that they did, then their motivations for the belief in distortion are in conflict with the Quranic belief system such that the Qur‟ an cannot plausibly be said to have inherited the Ebionite belief in this regard.

An obstacle on the way of women believers who pursue more equality and liberty are words and statements in scriptures, implying some sort of inequality between men and women. In this paper, we show that, faced with such religious statements, feminists have taken up historical-literary approaches. Here is the problem in this paper: why did feminists pursue such approaches? Do these approaches yield convincing exegeses of the challenging statements? Since late twentieth century, feminists adopted historical-literary approaches in their objections against the Bible. They tried to show how much the Bible was affected by early patriarchal beliefs. Muslim feminists are concerned with different issues from Christians, because Quranic statements concerning the creation of women and men are not objectionable, and count, indeed, as religious supports for feminists. What is challenging for this group of Muslims are Quranic verses with legal implications. It seems that they have, while preserving their faith, deployed modern methods and have had achievements in their defense of egalitarianism and its application to Quranic verses.

The problem of the “ continuity (istiṣ ḥ ā b) of the jurisprudential rulings of past religions” is an ancillary issue under istiṣ ḥ ā b. It is a problem in practical principles of jurisprudence, which is discussed at the end of the section on “ continuity” in terms of an objection. The main question is: if a jurisprudential ruling was legislated in a past religion (such as that of Moses or Jesus), and we are not certain whether it was abrogated or abolished in the next religion, then is it possible to apply the principle of continuity here? The issue is not much consequential in Islamic jurisprudence and its principle in that even if we reject the continuity of the rulings of past religions, we know that some of these rulings still exist in Islam. In spite of such an insignificant consequence, its consequences can be seen in history and theology. In this paper, we consider arguments presented by proponents and opponents as well as prominent scholars of the principles of jurisprudence.

The Book of Revelation is a long dream or revelation experienced by St. John during his exile in Patmos Island in the Aegean Sea, according to the traditional view. John‟ s Book of Revelation is the only prophetic and revelatory writing in official scriptures of the New Testament. John‟ s Book of Revelation is highly abstruse because of its extraordinarily metaphorical language. There are four traditional approaches to demystify the Book of Revelation: retrospective, prospective, historicist, and spiritualistic. According to the retrospective approach, all prophecies in John‟ s Book of Revelation are historical facts. On this approach, prophecies in the Book of Revelation are expressions of events that took place in early Church soon after its writing. Moreover, the book is addressed to Christians who were suppressed in the first century by the Roman Empire and were disappointed of future political circumstances. The message of the book was that God was going to alter the circumstances and rescue the faithful from evils. Furthermore, the retrospective approach suggests that God‟ s covenant with Israel expired in 70, and then the Christian Church replaced the old Israel. In this paper, I outline the contents of John‟ s Book of Revelation and traditional exegetical approaches thereto, considering various components of the retrospective approach. I finally assess the strengths and weaknesses of the approach.

The Pentecostal movement which arose in early twentieth century with an emphasis on the Holy Spirit, appeals to verses of the Bible and the teachings of its leaders and intellectuals to suggest that the Holy Spirit is dynamically present in the Church, drawing upon this to evangelize and propagate its religious tendency. In this paper, we examine the documents of the Bible and Pentecostal sources to show that what Pentecostals appeal to as the main component of their evangelism is at odds with verses of the Bible. The conclusion of the research includes empirical tendencies of Pentecostals, the non-Biblical ground of their Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the disappearance of the real person of the Holy Spirit.

In the Christian World, the dogma of infallibility has more or less been applied to the Bible, the Church, the First Council, and the Pope. The most controversial, disputed, and confused among these is Papal Infallibility. In this paper, we first discuss the notion and subject of infallibility, and then consider how it became authoritative throughout the history. Although references are made to this dogma in papal letters in fifth and sixth centuries in documents of the Church, the dogma was formulated in theological terms in the Middle Ages, that is, late 13th century, when Christian theologians began to delineate and demarcate the domain of the doctrine. Some theologians made a distinction between true and untrue Pope, taking the Pope to be infallible only if he is a true Pope. Others acknowledge Papal Infallibility, although they allow his betrayal or errors even when he is in his official position. They have supported this by an appeal to historical evidence. Other theologians have made a distinction between the Pope‟ s personal life and his position in the Church, taking the infallibility in the latter as an inhibitive grace by God. The historical development indicates that the doctrine was not treated as a definite tradition of the Catholic Church before the 19th century when it was approved in the First Vatican Council. Even after its approval, there have been opponents within the Catholic Church who challenged the authoritativeness of the doctrine.

In this paper, I delineate an expression in the Pahlavi text of Denkard Book 4, which does not appear in other Pahlavi texts. The author of this book proposes his main beliefs about creation in Islam and Zoroastrianism, and then compares a Pahlavi expression with the Quranic explicit expression of “ Be and it is” (kun fa-yakū n). I argue that since these texts are recent and the Zoroastrian community was in touch with Muslims and the Qur‟ an, it is unlikely for Quranic ideas not to have found their way into texts of the period. In this paper, after the preliminaries, I consider creation in Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism, and then examine the place of divine will in the creation.

Ancient societies conceived cure, disease, and death differently from modern societies. Ancient therapists often attributed diseases, pains, and deaths to supernatural causes, and thus, their cures were based on talisman, magic, spells, and supernatural forces. Ancient medicine also assigned a metaphysical origin to diseases in the first place, and a major part of their treatments were based on beliefs. In the ancient Greek thought, disease might arise from avenges of gods or as a result of their sufferings or a violation of a sacred taboo. Religious significance and myths of disease, death, and cure in Ancient Persia also imply their ontological position. According to Ancient Persians, Ahriman corrupted the world with evils and diseases. Creations of Ahriman find a place in human bodies, showing themselves as diseases. For them, medicine had an origin in Ahura. Thus, they make recourses to particular supplications (mantras) for healing and treatments. In this paper, I study diseases and healings from the perspective of Ancient Persians and Greeks.

Shikand-gumanig Vizar is a Zoroastrian theological work written by Mardan-Farrukh, the son of Urmuzd-Dad. The book outlines the principles of Zoroastrianism and then cast doubts about certain Islamic, Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean doctrines. The main problem, according to Mardan-Farrukh, is that of identification of the origins of the good and the evil, which is closely associated with the problem of monotheism. Thus, the author cites and then criticizes passages from the sources of Abrahamic religions. In fact, the author tries to show that the good and the evil cannot possibly issue from one and the same origin. Thus, prior to the creation of the world, Yazata (or God) had a combative rival responsible for the evil in the world. Mardan-Farrukh presents two general arguments for the existence of such a rival. First: if Yazata had no rival, then the creation of the world would be purposeless; and second: the existence of the good and the bad in the world is evidence of the existence of two essences, since two conflicting effects cannot be attributed to one and the same substance. In his view, the world was created because the rival had invaded in the illuminated world. Thus, the creation of the world can only be justified and be deemed wise if this thesis is true. Otherwise, we need to answer three questions: first, what is the relation between evils and divine wisdom? The issue of prophethood arises under this question. Second, what is the relation between evils and divine justice? And third, how could conflicting attributes be ascribed to one and the same Yazata?

Dashtan (menstruation) as an exclusive physical and psychological state of women has always been subject to certain social and religious laws and regulations. One interdisciplinary research demand in women and religious studies is to study and compare views and regulations of dashtan in different religions and denominations. For example, numerous laws and constraints were legislated in Zoroastrianism and Islam (Imā mī Shiism) concerning dashtan for women. The question is: what view of women are these laws based on? What “ oughts” and “ oughtn‟ ts” do they impose on women? And what are the points of commonality and distinction? Restrictive regulations for women during their menstruation and the manners of their post-menstrual cleaning are much more elaborated than those in Imā mī jurisprudence, although they are not acted upon today as strongly as they were in the past due to demands of the modern world and changing circumstances. In this paper, we draw on a descriptive-analytic method and a consideration of jurisprudential rulings and principles related to dashtan or menstruation in Zoroastrianism and Imā mī jurisprudence (fiqh) in Zoroastrian jurisprudential sources (in Persian) and Imā mī Shiite jurisprudential sources in order to analyze and explain the reasons behind these rulings, and then compare them to identify their points of commonality and contrast.

This paper is concerned with the notion of “ reason” in two old religions: Judaism and Zoroastrianism relying on the Old Testament and Gathas. In the Old Testament, reason comes up in three books: Genesis, the Story of Jacob, and the Story of King Solomon. There is, however, much more trace of reason in Gathas, however, with which we can delineate the Zoroastrian conception in this regard. With a juxtaposition of such textual evidence concerning reason, the notion can be accounted for and compared in Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Just like Zoroastrianism, Judaism recommends people to practical wisdom, although the two religions do not agree over the creation of reason. For Zoroastrians, people were destined from the beginning of the creation to be rational, whereas in Judaism people come to have reason after they commit a sin.

A significant even which remarkably affected the twentieth-century theology was the catastrophe of Holocaust. Theology, and even the world, is divided into pre-and post-Holocaust. The tragedy gave rise to questions about our traditional conception of God, and led Jewish and Christian theologians to offer new concepts of God so as to be able to account for and justify the event and God‟ s role in the world. In this paper, we have adopted a phenomenological approach in order to consider and review responses offered by some of the most important Jewish theologians to theological consequences of Holocaust and the conception of God in post-Auschwitz Jewish theology in terms of traditional and modern responses.