The Method of Understanding Religious Texts in the Thought of Ibn Roshd and Spinoza

One of the most important issues in the field of religion is to gain a proper understanding of religious writing and speech. The misunderstanding of them will lead to division, deviation and even turning away from religion. In the Islamic tradition, Ibn Roshd with the theory of tawil (esoteric interpretation of the Quran) and in the Jewish tradition, Spinoza with his own interpretive (hermeneutic) theory, have seriously addressed the issue. Despite the differences in some principles, the mechanisms they have proposed are very similar in how to achieve a correct understanding of religious texts. Believing in two categories of overt and covert texts, returning the covert texts to the overt ones, validating the appearance of the text, paying special attention to the grammar of the source language, avoiding the interference of presuppositions and prejudices, seeking intra-textual evidence, paying attention to the occasion to get rid of conflict and using natural methods are among the common mechanisms presented by these two rationalist philosophers. This article intends to first provide a descriptive explanation of the mentioned mechanisms and then comparatively show the various aspects of the harmony of these two philosophers on this issue.