Theological Debates in the Ancient World and Emergence of Intellectualism in Iran

The dominant perception about intellectualism in Iran is that it is a barrowed phenomenon and resulted from a lack. This perception acts as an obstacle for paying attention to the internal circumstances of intellectualism. The authors claim that intellectual identity is understandable only by considering Iran''s pre-intellectual experience (ancient world) besides intellectual experience in the West. In the current researches، the emergence of Iranian intellectuals is analyzed under the effect of communications between Iran and the West، but this phenomenon would not be possible without happening some changes in the formation of ancient thinking. By analyzing theological debates among Sadraie، Sheikhie and Babie theological thought in the pre-intellectual era، this article will indicate that how these debates have culminated in emerging intellectual thinking as a new intellectual language. The analysis of theological debates in the pre-intellectual era indicate that sacred knowledge as an objective matter was vanishing، naturalistic perception of the universe and man was developing، the positive science replaced sacred knowledge، and the language of theology was secularized. These factors paved the way for emerging the phenomenon of intellectualism by creating a bed for non-theological thought.