نشریه معرفت ادیان
سال سوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 11، تابستان 1391)

Though, the relationship between faith and good deed seems definite, but this relationship is a kind of easy yet impossible one. The necessity of righteousness of action to achieve goodly life raises the question whether righteousness is something inherent in action or based on some other thing. If it is inherent is it valuable? In case of the absence of the other thing, is a mere action rendered valuable if righteousness is based on some other thing? If the mere action is regarded valuable, what makes it valuable? These questions are raised here with the aim of demonstrating the difference between the value of action and its righteousness on the one hand. A positive or negative answer to each of these questions provides us with different explanations about the relationship between faith and good deed. On the other hand, this paper compares the view of Islam and that of Christianity and addresses the alternative view in the light of through Allamah Tabatabaii's view and then compares it with the views of Aquinas and John Hick, two catholic and Protestant thinkers.

Berger uses the term "dual citizenship" to define his approach to the study of religion. A dual citizen is one who can simultaneously do a theological activity and consider him/herself as belonging to the researcher citizens. The present paper tries to demonstrate the components based on which Berger could study religion by means of two approaches each of which has different methods and subjects, i.e. sociology and theology. First, the interrelated structures of inner-knowledge showed Berger that man can make use of his different mental structures in dealing with the phenomena, provided that the regulations of each structure are observed. Then the suspension contributes to his acquaintance with the regulations of approach of sociology. Finally, the nature of shades of meaning of man shows him empirical approaches, especially the approach of sociology, cannot make the last judgment on religion. Although some theories of the human sciences consider religion as the product of human mind, Berger believes that these very theories are, according to sociology of knowledge, subject to such criticism,. Therefore, Berger does his theological activities apart from the results of sociological research.

Today, the followers of divine religions hold that religious and human coexistence is contingent upon the dialogues among religious thinkers. Naturally, these dialogues are centered on the revealed books. One of the questions which can be searched in the Quran and the Bible is the issue of labor. Man has two dimensions: material and spiritual and their perfection can be realized through labor. The present paper tries to extract the moral status of labor from the main sources of Islam and Judaism including Quran, infallible Imam's traditions, the Bible and its authentic commentary and then analyze it. Islam condemns idleness and believes that God grants aid to those who carry the burden of responsiblity. According to Torah, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to work there and preserve it.

In the early 2011, the Vatican's Papal Council for Justice and Peace proposed some strategies inspired from the view of Christian economy for solving economic crises by issuing an analytical declaration on the financial crisis of 2008. It is important to analyze this declaration as a first step towards the interaction among the various monotheistic religions to solve the economic problems in the world. The present paper tries to analyze this declaration by taking into account its roots in Christian economic approach and the theoretical and practical achievements of Islamic banking. A library and analytical method is used in this research. The research findings indicate that although the aforementioned declaration enjoys some merits such as giving attention to the moral roots of economic crises, it suffers from some defects. For example it does not a strategic analysis of the main roots of the financial crisis including establishing unjust usury structure and widespread gambling-based speculation in the most part of world's monetary and financial system. A drastic solution for the crisis should be based on designing and implementing the system of contribution in loss and gain. According to Islamic approach, the formation and management of world's economic and financial system can avert many crises by paying attention to the role of market, state and ethics as well as the formation of international supporting and monitoring institutions.

One of the outcomes of Sheikhiyyah's particular beliefs about Bab which literally means door and figuratively refers to those who were or are claimed to be in contact with Imam of the Period (peace be upon him) is that they prepared the ground for the growth of the misguided sect of Babiyyah led by Ali Mohammad Bab, one of Sayyed Kazim Rashti's disciples. The main aspect of the nature of relationship between Sheikhiyyah and Babiyyah is that they both believe in the Fourth Pillar and in Babism. The doctrine of the Fourth Pillar was formulated by Sheikhiyyah and Twelver Shia had not thought of the particular meaning intended by Sheikhiyyah. The Sheikhiyyah uses the word Fourth Pillar to mean a mediator who guides people to Hidden Imam and considers the idea of the existence of Imam will be futile without believing in the Fourth Pillar. Therefore, Sheikhiyyah believes that there are four principles of religion: Unity of God, Prophethood, Resurrection and the Fourth Pillar. This particular system of thought of Sheikhiyyah concerning Fourth Pillar has provided the ground for Ali Mohammad Shirazi to claim that he is a Bab.

Traditionalists consider the variety of human societies with fundamental differences among them as one of the factors of plurality of religions in the world and believe that the differences among people are real, useful and have a basic role in the development of different forms of religion of the earth. They consider that religion is ascribed to two main factors: first; element of absolute, unconditioned and pure truth, and second; a margin of human essence, into which absolute truth penetrates. Given these two factors, every religion is the outcomes of the manifestation of its own image in the human society or the outcome of the connection of the element of absolute truth with human society. Since the images of religions are heterogeneous and the human societies for which religion is predestined are different in terms of language, capacities, attitudes and intellectul and spiritual needs, there have various forms of religion each of which emphasizes a particular aspect of the absolute truth and manifests a particular form of reality. This view suffers from many shortcomings this paper seeks to expound.