Comparative Theology
Year:2019 | Volume:9 | Issue:20|Papers Count:11

Mirdamad is philosopher, mystic, theologian, scholar, and jurisprudent of the 11th century AH. He lived in the Golden period of the Safavid dynasty and he had a Popular school in Isfahan. Though few works remain of him, however the study of these documents helps us to understand the interpretive and interpretative methods of Muslims. Mirdamad As a jurisprudent Understands the text On the apparent meaning of the words and His goal is to discover the purpose of the author of the text. On the other hand, his philosophical beliefs and mystical sentiment force him to move out of the circle of the text and make a Interpretation based on paraphrase (Tawil). Mirdamad, as a philosopher, attaches great importance to philosophical thought. If the text is consistent with its philosophical thought, it interprets the text in that framework and if he is not compatible, he carries his philosophical thought as an intellectual and transcendental case on the text. He sees the text as a sign of meaning in philosophical thought, and of course this "indication" does not depend on verifying the appearance of the word. Mirdamad interpretations and interpretations of texts are also excluded from the field of philosophical thinking and based on mystical acquiescence; what is not in the sense of words is not based on the symbols inside and outside the text, it is not based on philosophical and theologycal evidence. By mention examples of Mirdamad books, this diversity is analyzed in his interpretive method. Mirdamad's way of interpreting the text shows a range of interpretations in Muslim scholars. Additionally, Mirdamad has also studied the concept of understanding in his works that in these studies, he has approached to Philosophical Hermeneutics. In his view, meanings are like gemstones in the depths of the ocean, The intelligent mind is to extract these treasures. Mirdamad does not consider the interpretive mind as passive, but sees it as active. He knows the mind as the cultivator that brings up the seeds of the text and cultivates the product. So Understanding is not just about the text, but the understanding of each person is proportional to himself.

The two issues, death and the hereafter, play an irrefutable role in explaining the meaning of life. While using a comparative analytic method to analyze Avicenna’ s and Ibn Arabi’ s points of view in this regard, this paper explores points of view supporting and opposing their statements. To both of them, mankind’ s this-worldly life, without belief in the hereafter and immortality, and without achievement of eternal salvation, does not possess a reasonable goal, a considerable value, and a defensible function. Although both of them agree on issues such as an optimistic attitude towards death, the absolute dependence of the hereafter on the thisworldly life, belief in both the physical and spiritual aspects of the hereafter, but apart from the fact that Avicenna explores these issues through his rational method, and Ibn Arabi through combining the two methods: intuition and referring to the Qur’ anic verses and the traditions, these two thinkers have two different views on other issues, such as their perception of the physical hereafter, the explanation of the proportion between mankind’ s two existential essences, the topic of eternity, and dealing with the issue of fear of death....

The essence of transcendent God’ s knowledge, state of his knowledge before creation and the way of his knowledge to temporal variables are three important issues of his knowledge. These three are discussed both in philosophy and Kalam. In this article, based on a newly published work of Mulla Shamsa-named Khafri’ s Review on Sharh Elahiyat Tajrid of Ghoshji about Divine Knowledge and Power-and some of his other works, we have been trying to present Shamsa’ s answer. As will be described in this paper, he believes in knowledge of entity to entity for God, and calls it intense detailed knowledge by presence as unnamed meaning. He has presented some objections to Ibn-Sina’ s view and believes that those are misunderstandings of Sheikh al-Raeis’ s view. He thinks with his theory we can get an interpretation of Ibn-Sina’ s view that Sohrevardi’ s and Khaje-Nasir’ s objections are answered...

It is more than 30 years that attending inter-religious meetings and symposiums has been on the agenda of some of the Iran's religious and social institutions. Those who have been and are still active in this area, as well as the different approaches they choose are an important source of analysis in terms of knowledge and experience. This research seeks to understand the knowledge and experience of the activists of the area and their critical interpretation of inter-religious dialogue and to provide a systematic analysis of it by constructing and systematizing its respective themes. Therefore, this research has been conducted with descriptive-analytic approach and qualitative method. For this purpose, along with theoretical findings, we have tried to collect empirical data using semi-structured interview techniques...

In the ancient world, the covenant was a serious agreement that societies attempted to regulate the behavior of individuals and institutions, especially in areas where there was not enough social control in them. Therefore, in the history of religion, the concept of the Covenant is the longstanding concept, which has been emphasized especially in monotheistic religions. The God of the Old Testament sets his own behavior with his servants according to the covenant. The treaty in the Zarathustrianism can be study by the principle of Asha / Artah (Truth) and the practice of Mithra. It is a supernatural law that is one with natural law. This doctrine is considered a metaphysical supporter to all treaties and then, it has played a decisive role in maintaining the moral and social order. The concept of these words and their reflection in these religions are the issues that have been investigated in this study. Despite the considerable differences between these oldest religions in Western Asia, they seem to regard these doctrines as fundamental and have shown it with various shapes and symbols. The essential differences in this regard, are related to the origin of the Covenant, its inclusion, repetition and being exclusion or graduality and significant similarities related to the concept, importance and educational aspect of them. This research has been done by comparative and analytical method with the aim of understanding of this common doctrine to enhance mutual understanding between religions...

It is needless to say that the lack of spirituality and peace, cultural and moral decline of human values are among key global challenges and unfortunately we are also encountered with these problems. Finding the best goal for life is one of the pillars of a desirable culture and is of paramount importance in lifestyle and life purpose. After knowing the life purpose, we must provide an exact and long term plan in order to come up with suitable strategies in line with the purpose at issue. To know the best ultimate purpose one can make use of rational arguments, revelation and intuition; Mull Sadra has used diverse (rational, traditional and intuitional) methods in his philosophical system. He believes that man in view of his mode of creation and free will have the potentiality to be a mirror that reflects the Divine Names and Attributes and becomes God's vicegerent on earth (Sadra, 1999, vol. 1: 2)...

This study aims to present a new interpretation of the theory of evolution and its compatibility with intelligent design based on special views of Peter van Inwagen. This article which is conducted by descriptive analysis relies on library research findings. Peter van Inwagen, an American analytical philosopher and one of the leading figures in metaphysics and philosophy of religion, is a skeptical theist who defends compatibility between the theory of evolution and Darwinism and intelligent design. He maintains that he has presented a new interpretation of the theory of evolution and in this regard, proposes a kind of Darwinism called “ weak Darwinism” . In his account, Van Inwagen admits basic principles of Darwinism such as common descent, random mutations, natural selection, and even the widespread acts of natural selection in nature, however, he restricts the acts of random mutation and natural selection with a sort of agnosticism in order to pave the way for explaining the universe through other mechanisms like intelligent design. As a Christian who has love and affection to God, he believes that the order in the universe is as a result of God’ s guidance and wisdom, and although the order in the world is under the influence of random mutations and natural selections, all the past and current events could not have occurred randomly.

In the contemporary world, due to the growth and spread of various technologies, intra and inter cultural communication have become much more possible. Individuals with different religions and cultures struggle to express their religion and culture, which is why the concept of dialogue is generally used and emphasized. Also, because of the importance of religion and the possibility of influencing on various social groups, policymakers try to fully design and implement their policies through the interfaith dialogue study. This article, using the documentary method, aims to examine the conceptualization of interfaith dialogue and the collection of its various types. In this regard, according to the indicators of dimension, style, type, dialoguers and the topic of interfaith dialogue, 54 types in the similarity of the dialoguers and 162 types in their non-marital status are extracted. It is clear that in view of the severe shortage of Persian sources in this field, achieving a comprehensive pattern of interfaith dialogue typology can be an innovative and an introductive to cultural and communicative policy making of interfaith dialogue...

Introduction: The present article seeks to first examine the concept of "apostle" in the sacred texts of the two religions i. e. Christianity and Islam: the New Testament and the Holy Qur'an, and then, in a comparative approach, tries to identify the difference between this concept in these two religions. As we will see in this introduction, this essay can help to clarify some of the most important concepts in these two religions. Discussion. All divine / Abrahamic religions are based on the three basic concepts of the sender of the messenger, the messenger, and the message, but the most important difference between these religions lies in the concept of the apostle or the messenger. The present article is designed to examine the same concept in these two religions in a comparative way. Therefore, this article seeks to: examine the difference between the concept of the apostle in the sacred texts of Christianity and the same concept in the Holy Qur'an...

In this article, the views of Karl Rahner and Mulla Sadra on the pre-conceptual understanding of God are compared. Although these two thinkers belong to different historical and intellectual traditions, there are some ways in which they can be compared. With the adaptation of the concept of Transcendental Thomism from Joseph Marshall's thought and the use of Heidegger's ontology, Rahner presents a new interpretation of onto-theology. Rahner says that Heidegger's ontology ultimately leads to nihilism, since Heidegger interprets Being in terms of nothingness. Rahner believes that ontology should determine its orientation regard God, either as atheistic or theological approach, but the Heidegger’ s ontology is silent about God and does not speak positively or negatively about Him. The most important feature of Dasein in Heidegger's thought is to ask of being, and this asking shows that Dasein has preconceptual or a-priori understanding of God...