نشریه پژوهش های ادیانی
پیاپی 4 (پاییز و زمستان 1393)

Dharma is one of the most important teachings of Buddhism upon which many other teachings of the religion are based. A notion similar to Dharma preexists Buddhism in Hindu culture under the title of Ryth that is associated with the cosmic order. Later in Buddhism, the Ryth has also taken several meanings and functions, getting related with law, morality and the four noble truths. In this paper, first, we will briefly survey and explain various meanings and functions of Dharma in Hinduism and Buddhism and point to some similar notions in the other religions. Finally we conclude that teachings similar to Dharma could be detected in the other religions and cultures. Although the Buddha does not actually teach anything about God, but his teachings on Dharma looks like the concept of God in other religions such as Logos in the Christianity

Bible is the greatest theological source of Christianity that enjoys the ultimate intra-religious legitimacy possible. Legitimacy can be defined as a feature formed in the history of a scripture or that of its interpretation, dealing with the sanctity being kept by its creator. The prominent Christian theologians considered Bible as the revelation of God that was descended by the Holy Spirit, while prophets and messengers were merely His medium. There are several verses in the New Testament confirming the legitimacy of the Bible. It is also considered by the Jesus Christ of high validity and legitimacy. Therefore it should be emphasized that everyone is to respect and obey the Bible as a legitimate and valid holy book. The Church, doctrines and the community should follow the Bible in terms of validity, but there are many problems regarding its internal legitimacy that result in the invalidity of its reasoning. This article critically surveys the reasoning for the legitimacy of the bible

from the very beginning of the world human being has been preoccupied with the fact of death and the end of life. Regarding death, there are various instructions in different cultures either religious or irreligious including a wide range of beliefs from the eternal world to denial of whatever after life is. It can be claimed that Divine religions, relying on non-humanly teachings, supply their followers with a more brightened perspective through a comprehensive and consistent package of instructions about this supernatural subject. Amongst the religions, Islam as the termination of divine ones and Zoroastrianism as the oldest religion separately explained the subject of death in a clear method. A comparison between these explanations along with their pre-instructions and post-instructions indicates some amazing similarities and differences including some informative points as well. The present article aims at investigating and comparing the views of Islam and Zoroastrianism on death rituals according to the instructions of transmission, surveying their influences on each other as well

While the Crucifixion, death and Resurrection of Jesus is amongst the most fundamental and controversial events in the history of Christianity, it has become a place for disagreement between the Muslim and the Christian. If we consider the Crucifixion and death of Jesus, from two aspects i.e. theological and historical, it must be said that the theological difference between the two religions in terms of the doctrine of the Christ originates from their different historical narrations of it. According to the Gospels, Jesus Christ was arrested by the Roman soldiers, put into trial and then crucified and buried, but after three days rose from the dead and ascended to the Heaven.
The Muslim Narrations of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus is very different from its Christian version. The viewpoint of some Muslim exegetists on the event looks like that of their Christian counterparts. Surveying the Muslim Narrations It could be told that they did not manage to get to a determined account of the Crucifixion, death and Resurrection of Jesus, each of them having some vague and challenging points. It might be told that those Muslim narrations that are in the same direction with the Christian ones could be more justifiable to assent

The cosmic order has always been one of the most important phenomena drawing the attention of the scholars of all religions. Cosmic order organizes the Cosmos and governs all the events in Nature enveloped within Earth’s environment. It seems that cosmic order has received a special attention in Zoroastrianism and Taoism since the nature is to some extent a holy notion as a result of the expression of the cosmic order. In the ancient Iran cosmic order equals Āshā, enjoying an extensive range of meaning, as a principle foundation of Zoroastrianism. The term Āshā means the Truth but terminologically it denotes an eternal spiritual and ethical law established by Ahura Mazda. Based on Āshā, any action in the realm of human behavior and morality is followed by a reaction and any good or bad deed has its own specific reward. Similarly in the realm of natural rules the expression of Āshā is the order and balance of nature which is the cause of its permanence. The term denoting cosmic order in Taoism is Tao, including the natural ordering and moral order as the comprehensive rule of life. Tao is a permanent law based on which the nature moves forward and the balance dominating the world is the result of such a movement. According to Tao Te Ching, human, Tao and nature are the heads of the triangle of being and their harmony is secured by some other factors such as Yin-Yang, the two active and receiving principles of being, and the Five Elements (Wu Xing)

Dharma is one of the most important teachings of Buddhism upon which many other teachings of the religion are based. A notion similar to Dharma preexists Buddhism in Hindu culture under the title of Ryth that is associated with the cosmic order. Later in Buddhism, the Ryth has also taken several meanings and functions, getting related with law, morality and the four noble truths. In this paper, first, we will briefly survey and explain various meanings and functions of Dharma in Hinduism and Buddhism and point to some similar notions in the other religions.
Finally we conclude that teachings similar to Dharma could be detected in the other religions and cultures. Although the Buddha does not actually teach anything about God, but his teachings on Dharma looks like the concept of God in other religions such as Logos in the Christianity

In this article the author studies the notion of feminist in Dao De Jing and intends at replacing the Daoist notion of femininity with the Daoist notion of complementarity of the contrasting couples to present interesting perceptions on how to explain femininity (and masculinity). The author of the article interprets the notions of femininity and masculinity in Dao De Jing as interdependent notions. He also suggests that this project is not fruitful unless the dualistic viewpoints or cliché frameworks are purged away from this notion. In the first part he contemplates on the notion of femininity in Dao De Jing as well as the values and ideals associated with it, and then in the second part cautiously studies the Daoist notion of femininity under the light of the feministic thought in the contemporary western philosophy to demonstrate that the Daoist notion of femininity by itself does not have anything for the contemporary feministic thought. In the third part a reasoning is presented to support the claim that Daoist thought enjoys significant "notional origins" to bestow to the contemporary feministic philosophy. In this part two basic notions of Daoist thought namely Dao and De as well as their interrelation are surveyed as an example of thoughts pertaining to the Daoist notion of complementarity. The author demonstrates in this part that these basic thoughts supply us with the ground for a new approach to the notions of femininity and masculinity that could be addressed as a subject of contemporary feministic thought