مسیحیت

Political authority and its origin are fundamental issues in the formation of a political society. Christian theological thinkers have tried to present a solid theory in this regard according to the worldview and ideology based on it. In the meantime, Catholic thinkers in different eras have different perspectives. The central question of this research is the basis of the political authority of Jesus (peace be upon him) and his heirs, in addition to religious authority, in Catholic Christianity, which is finally determined by document-analytical method while examining the discussions of experts in different periods of Catholicism. According to most of them, any political legitimacy originates from God, who is the absolute ruler of the world, and it is He who delegated the right of sovereignty and political authority to Jesus (peace be upon him) and after his ascension to his successors, the apostles and priests. To either take charge of affairs themselves or to give legitimacy to the rule of kings, on this basis, any type of government not based on these two methods is considered illegitimate and aggressive.

After the spread of secularism, religion was excluded from society, except when it had a function and solved problems in the human world. The purpose of this research is not to prove the legitimacy, but to verify the application of Islamic texts compared to Christian texts. The church has given up some of its positions, which shows the necessity of such research. This study deals with “opponent” and encountering it as one of human’s interactions. After defining the problem, limiting the scope, and expressing the apparent similarities and differences, the research data was collected using documentary and library methods and then described and explained through content analysis. The results show that Islam has been opposed more than Christianity. Islam has opposed less and most of its opposition has been to protect the right path. When Islam has had no power, it has opposed more in the field of speech and then thought, not in action; therefore, unlike Christianity, this approach of Islam has not led to irreparable actions.

This research is a comparative study of the views of Saint Augustine and Ibn al-Haytham on beauty. Augustine, the Christian thinker, viewed beauty from a mystical perspective, while Ibn al-Haytham, the Muslim scholar, had a scientific and empirical perspective. The aim of this study is to examine the components of beauty in the works of these two thinkers and compare the similarities and differences in their views using a library method. The findings show that despite the influence of both of them on ancient Greek philosophy and the existence of similarities in their aesthetic theories, the mystical outlook of Augustine and the scientific outlook of Ibn al-Haytham led to differences in their views on the components of beauty. This comparative study is important due to the prominent position of these two thinkers in the Islamic and Christian traditions of aesthetics, as well as the importance of Ibn al-Haytham's theories among Western thinkers.

The central focus of this article is to explore how human autonomy and freedom are shaped using the principles and approaches of Christianity during the early modern period in Europe. The research adopts a historical and foundational methodology. Christianity, as interpreted in a particular way within modern philosophy, emerges as a religion of individuality, freedom, and the liberation of humans from external authority. Descartes' philosophy, in a sense, shares this central theme of freedom with Christianity. He is among the first figures in Western intellectual history to take significant steps toward liberating humanity from external authority. Descartes’ epistemological theory paves the way for greater human freedom and independence by positioning reason as autonomous and self-legislating, reliant solely on its own principles and acknowledging no authority higher than itself. With this approach, Christianity plays a crucial role in shaping Descartes' way of thinking. However, for Christianity to serve as the foundation for all modern transformations, it needed a theologian like Thomas Aquinas, who could bridge the sacred Christian principles with the secular outlook of the modern world. This article examines the relationship between Christianity, the philosophical revolution of Thomas Aquinas, and Descartes' philosophy of freedom.

Archaeological explorations in Arabia have led to the discovery of abundant evidence that changes our perception of pre-Islamic Arabia. The traditional notion is manifested in calling it the “Jāhiliyya” era, which comprises two important ideas: First, there was no central government in Arabia and tribal chaos was widespread, and secondly, many idols were generally worshiped, until the eve of Islam. In contrary, the epigraphic texts contain much information that provide a clearer picture of the political situation and religious tendencies of pre-Islamic Arabia. In this article, firstly, the political situation of Pre-Islamic Arabia following the gradual domination of the kingdom of Ḥimyar over the Arabian Peninsula will be briefly reviewed, and then, by examining examples of the material evidence from about three centuries before Islam, the belief in One God is reviewed as well as the name of One God among Jewish and Christian Arabs. As a result, it can be seen that from about two centuries before Islam, not only evidence of worshiping multiple gods is missing in the inscriptions found in different regions of Arabia, but much evidence of Judaism and Christianity has been found, in which only One God, with different names and phrases, is called.

Today, various religions assert different claims on diverse theological issues, the belief in which requires proof of authenticity or justification through specific means. Determining authoritative sources within each religion is precisely for this reason. However, a problem contemporary believers face regarding some of their doctrines is that certain beliefs, currently viewed as vital and essential, are not easily proven through conventional methods. This creates doubt about the authenticity of some doctrines—how can certain teachings hold a foundational status in the modern structure of a religion if they were not sufficiently addressed in the primary sources, making it challenging today to establish their authenticity or verify their truth or falsehood? One approach to resolving this issue is examining the frequency (or lack thereof) of a doctrine in the core of a particular religion. The claim of this paper is that if a doctrine is fundamental to a religion, it should be sufficiently emphasized in the initial core of that religion; its absence suggests that this doctrine is the result of an evolutionary process rather than a foundational, intrinsic, and deep-rooted belief. Moreover, it is untenable to claim that evidence might have existed but has not reached us for some reason, as eliminating all direct and indirect evidence is implausible. This paper examines the primary issue by comparing two doctrines—Trinity in Christianity and Monotheism in Islam—to critique the Trinity from this perspective, noting that while the Trinity, which is crucial in the structure of Christian theology today, is not addressed in the early layers of this religion, the equivalent in Islamic tradition, i.e., Monotheism, does not face such an issue. This difference is crucial in assessing the validity and authenticity of these concepts.

Radical theology became so famous in the 1960s. A large part of the Christian Community didn’t accept its view, especially on the death of God. Karl Barth, the origin of neo-orthodox theology, did not take its views. This article tries to show that despite this opposition, radical theology was influenced by Barth’s theology. In the early twentieth century, Barth distinguished between religion and revelation in opposition to liberal theology. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sympathetic to Barth in this and developed the distinction between these two. In addition to that, he was interested in his contemporary secular come-of-age world, his question especially in the later period of his life was who Christ is and what is Christianity in this world. So he got the concept of religionless Christianity from this distinction, in addition, presented arcane discipline, the weak God, and being-for-others on the same ground. He developed an interesting framework for radical theologians after his death and they benefited from it in developing their views. So radical theologians utilized Barth’s thoughts through Bonhoeffer, despite Barth’s opposition to their production.

"The original sin", which represents the loss of the sanctity of Adam and Eve due to eating the forbidden fruit, is one of the main foundations of Christianity and has taken root in the wide dimensions of theological issues. Different readings of this event have left different opinions on the status and rights of women. The dominant theory declared the inferior position of women to men, because according to the Bible woman was created from the left rib of man, Satan first deceived the woman and the woman deceived the man to eat from the forbidden tree. It was through him that sin entered the earth. Therefore, a woman must be submissive to a man and has no right to dominate a man even in education. But some others in different periods tried to prove the equality of men and women through theological proofs and new interpretations of God and the Bible or by distorting the authenticity of the Bible. The results of these efforts in Christian churches have been different; For example, in the Catholic Church, the theory of women's inferiority still prevails, and women are not allowed to be appointed to church positions, but in the Protestant Church, the status of women has been elevated somewhat, and in many churches, women have been allowed to preach and hold church positions. This is a descriptive-analytical research paper in order to investigate the theological and social efforts of the Protestant Church to promote the status and dignity of women.

The Protestant movement started widespread protests in the 16th century with the slogan of religious reform, especially against the authority of the Pope and the spiritual hierarchy in the Catholic Church. Along with some other factors that had declined the governing power of the Catholic Church and the papal system during the late centuries of the Middle Ages, these protests made the foundation of the thousand-year rule of Western Christianity unstable; so the Catholic Church (religion) was removed from the scene of politics and governance forever. On the other hand, the Protestant movement's emphasis on the slogan of ‘reformations’ strengthens the idea that Protestantism was not against the rule of religion, but tried for its reformation, and specifically tried for a change in the rule of the Pope and the Catholic Church. Using a descriptive -analytical method, this article studies the structure, intellectual foundations and performance of the leaders of the Protestant movement, and explains the hypothesis that the nature of Protestantism and the spirit dominant on its doctrines and slogans entails crisis and chaos, which completely obviates the potential for establishing a religious government.

"Moral education" is one of the most important issues for human perfection and ultimate happiness. Therefore, all religions and denominations have paid a special attention to this topic, especially by defining religious rituals for their followers. The question of this article is to examine the similarities and differences between Catholic and Shiite religious practices in terms of their moral education. In order to answer this question, using descriptive-analytical method and using Catholic and Shia religious sources as well as the works of some researchers, I have investigated and analyzed the Catholic and Shiite religious rites in terms of moral education and their similarities and differences. Therefore, I have studied the four rites of "Baptism", "Confession", "Marriage" and "Holy Communion" from the Catholic religion and the four rites of "Martyrdom", "Repentance", "Marriage" and "Prayer" from the Shia religion. I found many educational similarities between these rituals, but there are also many differences as well. Shia religious rites have a significant superiority in terms of moral education, and having all the positive aspects of Catholic moral education, it lacks their weak points.

One of the most fundamental topics of mystical and theological schools is the matter of "good and evil" and its attribution to the origin of creation; being issued from one source or two sources. Being influenced by the culture and beliefs of various nations, especially the influence of the Orient, the Gnostic school, which emerged at the beginning of Christianity, has special views about the origin of good and evil and their authenticity and relationship with God. This essay tries to provide a descriptive-analytical explanation of these views to answer this fundamental question: what are the examples of good and evil in the Gnostic thought and how is their relationship with the realm of divinity? The special sign of the Qumran community in the Old Testament is the dualistic tendency, which was not extended to the realm of divinity in the initial stages of its division or assignment by Simon Magh, the father of the Gnostic religion, in the early stages; but in the second century AD, the Gnostic Marcion who raised questions about the nature of good and evil and their relation to God, established polytheism. He accepted the principle of "duality", just like his like-minded Gnostics, such as Kerdo and Lukyan, in imitation of ancient Iranian mysticism, and later with the appearance of Mani, this principle became one of the Gnostic teachings and became global. However the orthodox Christians believed that the Gnostics have doubted the unity of God in the religion of Jews and Christ by proposing the God of evil and the supreme God; and this was not acceptable to them at all. What led, in fact, to the belief of dualism and the separation of the God of good and evil by the Gnostic leaders of the second century, was the inability of the Gnostics to recognize the relativity of evil and its familiarity among all beings other than God and the introduction of the character of "Sophia" as the divine female face by Simon in the following centuries.

Acculturation is among the basic concepts belong to Communication Science that in terms of history has been used by Christian Missionaries as promotion methods. This term consists of the process in which groups of people with different cultures, bridge communicate together through the constantly, firsthand and interactive manner. Changes are originated in the cultural patterns of one or another group accordingly by performance. Inculturation during the ages changed to a scientific, observable and experimental technique capable to study in theory along method. It contains two methods Motive and Cultural Diffusion which are accomplished by means of Time, Space, Social Relations, Symbols and Streaming Agreements in societies. Nowadays, human relations whereas analyzing with models. Two Models are mentioned in this paper named VALS and YANKELOVICH. One of the samples in religion development through the Inculturation is the process of Christianity’s spread in China performed by Matteo Ricci in 16 A.D. He used the Immersion method in Chinese culture by learning the language and customs, paved the way for Christendom interaction with China.

One of the common doctrines between Abrahamic religions is the doctrine of belief in a savior and the promised end of time. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected three days after being crucified and ascended to heaven after some time and will return from heaven at the end of time and establish the kingdom of God.It is taught in the Bible that believers should wait every moment and every day for the coming of God's kingdom. In the Bible, there were people who were known as those waiting for the kingdom of God. And today, one of the church ceremonies is the Eucharist, which is actually known as a kind of prayer ceremony for the coming of God's kingdom. In this research, we investigate the culture of waiting for God's kingdom according to the principles of the Bible.  The purpose of this research is to strengthen the common points of the two religions of Islam and Christianity in the matter of believing in the promised and waiting and preparing for the coming of God's kingdom.  The research method is textual studies with a focus on Christian scriptures.

Considering the important role of governments in organizing societies and managing people by directing their thoughts and actions and the serious entry of religion into the sphere of determining the fate of individuals, it is necessary to examine the goals of religious governments. In the meantime, Islam and Christianity, as two living religions with many followers in today's world, deserve a closer examination. The following article identifies and compares the goals of Islamic and Christian religious governments with a library study and a descriptive-analytical method and concludes that despite the existence of differences in the foundations and methods of these two religions, similarities There are many differences in the main goals of these two religious governments. According to this new review, the goals of Islam in religious governance are: security and social justice, the perfection of man and the realization of God's rule on earth, and the goals of Christianity in religious governance are: security and social justice, bringing the world to perfection and realizing God's rule on earth.

Recognition of the position of Mary (PBUH), the mother of Jesus Christ (PBUH) in the Christian religion is of undoubted importance, but comparing it with the position of Mary (PBUH) in Islam, and especially in the Qur’an, is very informative. In the Gospels, Mary has a very faded presence, while in the Qur’an, she is of great dignity and high status. Nevertheless, why was Mary raised to the position of the Mother of God among Christians, but she does not have such a position among Muslims? Has Mary’s mediating role increased Mary’s status among Christians? At the same time, in Islam, Mary (PBUH) is pregnant with the divine spirit and her status is such that revelation reaches her. Is the infallibility of Mary (PBUH) certified in the Qur’an? This article aims to briefly study the importance, role, and nature of this saint among her followers, as well as the position of Mary (PBUH) in the Qur’an.

Recently, in feminist studies, a new Field has been opened in the revision of religious texts and theology in a feminist perspective. Feminist theologians not only examine the canonical texts of religions, but also discuss texts that are not considered valid by the religious community today. In the Christian tradition, too, a fivefold collection called the Apocryphal of the Acts of the Apostles caught the attention of feminist theologians. These texts which are Written in the first three centuries of Christian history reflect the concerns of elites about the presence of women in the religious community, which contains unique points from other similar texts. The purpose of this study is to provide a clear view of the discourse ignored in the early years and the formation of canonical Christianity, thus according to other texts answering the question of whether, women in the first centuries of Christianity were constantly subjugated in the masculine structure or not. Therefore, in the present study, a descriptive-analytical method examines the personality of women in these texts from a feminist perspective and concludes that these texts portray women in two aspects: victim-hero. It is worth mentioning that both aspects should be discussed from different dimensions to reveal its unseen angles.

The emergence of Islam as an abrogator of previous religions provoked the reactions of other religions, especially Christians who considered Islam as a rival religion. These reactions and encounters increased particularly with the advent of colonialism and were revealed in the form of conversations, debates, and writing treatises against each other. The book "Refutation of Padori", written by Hoseyn Ali Shah Isfahani, is one of the important refutations in response to the claim of the Westerners. This refutation is an answer to the words of Henry Martin, known as Padori, who traveled to Iran as an agent of the Christian Missionaries Association. In this book, important issues such as the denial of the prophetic miracle, the differences between Christianity and Islam, and the slanders against the character of the Prophet of Islam have been answered. After a brief review of Henry Martin's political and preaching life, the present article examines Isfahani's theological method. In addition to Isfahani's words, this paper deals with the findings of other scholars in the field of theology and history. The results show that Isfahani had a special emphasis on the beliefs of the other party and answered Padori's objections by relying on rational arguments, using allegorical arguments and theological rules. However, sometimes he did not consider all aspects and hence controversial arguments can be seen in his work..

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948, in 30 articles, claiming respect for human dignity, freedom, and human rights. In this declaration, topics such as personal, civil, political, economic, social, and cultural human rights are emphasized. This paper aims to examine the views of the Catholic Church on human rights, considering the problems of human rights that are raised in comparison with Islamic views. In Catholic Christianity, there were three theological interpretations of human rights issues. In these types of interpretations, some believe that the issues of human rights and Christianity are compatible with each other and have a close relationship, which is guaranteed by the principles of the Bible. Others, taking a position against the secularists, believe that the foundations of human rights are necessarily theological and rooted in the Bible. The third group, on the contrary, insists on the incompatibility between Christian theology and human rights. Using a descriptive-analytical approach and qualitative content analysis method, this article introduces the topic of human rights and expresses different types of Catholic interpretations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, it considers the third point of view, which expresses the incompatibility between Christian theology and human rights, to be more consistent with the theological foundations of Catholic Christianity. The article rejects the evidence of the first two views and provides evidence for the third one and concludes that the nature of Christian teachings and dogma is incompatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, therefore, the claim of compatibility is more political