Religious Texts; from Sacredness to Literariness

Since most religions – especially Islam in the present situation – are "text centered", a new perspective regarding the investigation of these texts has been created. This new viewpoint is the literary investigation of religious texts which has gone through many changes due to the developments of the literary theory and literary criticism. The main presupposition of this research and most religious researches is the suspension of essence and that religion/religious texts are rare; this makes it a literary text. The neo-literates followed the spirit dominant on the West's tradition of research, and gradually a literary school of Quran's interpretation was formed. The "allegorical reading" of some such as Nasr Hamed Aboo-zaid and Mohammad Arkoun is the up-to-date version of this school. The main problem of this conventional look at religious texts and considering them literary texts is their base in the suspension of essence; which has created a deep separation between a devoutly approach to religion and the researching approach. The researcher cannot be open-minded in his literary study although he/she such claims, and he/she will lose his concordance with religious texts. On the other hand if we regard a text's different levels of meaning, having a literary look at the texts is a petitio principii (reasoning in circle) in which the favored result is supposed; thus there will not be enough evidence for believing in Quran or religious texts. This kind of approach is more than a special point of view; it challenges the essence of faith and religion.