پژوهشنامه ادیان
سال دوازدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 24، پاییز و زمستان 1397)

In the Vedic period, the act of purification was treated as a rite performed through the ritual ceremonies. Gradually, with the emergence and development of introversion attitude in Hindu culture, the concept of purity in Hindu thought entered the realm of mind and found a new dimension as a moral virtue. As seen in the Upanishads, within this new phase, the necessity of performing rituals for purification stood as a second-rated priority, while the concepts of inner purity and self-refinement occupied the first place among Hindu concerns. With the emergence of negative attitude towards human body as observed in later Upanishads, the concept of purification, which had now taken also a sanitary dimension, became less and less important. Nevertheless, in The Laws of Manu, one can observe anew emphasis on the ritualistic and bodily aspects of purification. Therefore, the concept of purity in Hinduism eventually became regarded as an existential state of being, related to both body and spirit.

William St. Clair Tisdall, a British linguist and historian, believes that the concept of mīzān, "otherworldly measure", in Quran was adopted from an apocryphal book, Testament of Abraham, written in Egypt about four hundred years before the migration of the Prophet and the Prophet probably heard it from his Coptic wife, Mary. According to Tisdall the origin of this concept can be trace back to ancient Egyptian mythology and the book of the dead. By employing the descriptive-analytical method, this article tries to challenge the viewpoint of Tisdall. Studies show that both written and oral versions of these two books were not available at the time of the Prophet. Moreover, the Surahs in which mīzān is used are all Maki, therefore the idea of oral transmission of the concept through Coptic Marie is completely improbable and it shows the lack of Tisdall's proficiency in the history of Islam.

This article tries to study the relation between the concept of suffering and socio-political action in the Jurgen Moltmann's political theology and tries to answer these questions: How suffering became sacred in Christian theology? And how this sacred suffering in the political theology of Moltmann is portrayed as a positive and pragmatic action? For Jurgen Moltmann suffering plays a vital role in the development of socio-political context.  So he introduces the concept of "suffering for change" as a key concept in the "theology of hope". He tries to connect the Trinity event, as a hopeful suffering, and the necessity of social action for Christian community. For him, the theology of redemption is a social interpretation of the Trinity event and it demands the active participation of Church in the social issues and its support of redemptive movement.

All religions and cults have some practical terms which gradually take on different meanings, even contradictory, in different schools and sects. Māyā is one of these terms to which this article addresses and tries to study its meanings from Vedas to Upanishads and Indian philosophical schools of thought. But among the various uses and meanings of the Māyā, this term has played an important role in Advaita Vedānta School, founded by Shankara. In this article, the place of Māyā in Advaita Vedānta's ontology and its role in the theory of creation and salvation is surveyed. Finally, from a comparative point of view, we look at some Muslim scholars' views on Māyā and we also study some similar concepts in Islamic mysticism.

Gnosticism as an important and effective school have been studied frequently. It is mainly due to its influences on several mystical and religious traditions. In this article we study the role of women in Gnostic traditions by considering the mutual relation between religion and society. In the first two centuries A.D., based on the teachings of two Gnostic teachers, i.e. Simon Magus and Valentinus, a particular attitude was taken towards the role of women by the Christian theologists. Thus, the Gnostic worldview and theology spread to explain the position of the female element in the divinity. Moreover, the role of wisdom (often characterized by the name of Sophia), in the process of creation, was emphasized. In a reciprocal way, this theology, based on the female divine personality, affected the activities of women in religious society and the understanding of the scriptures.

In the works of Shaikh Ahmad Jām (11-12 A.D), besides his attention to mystical and moral issues, he often considers the social problems. By employing content analysis method, this article tries to describe his approach towards his contemporary religious guilds. According to his works, one can distinguish three different classes in the religious community: firstly the sacred characters who are completely acceptable, such as ascetics, mystics and sages. Secondly, a group that consists of good and bad characters, such as Sufis and Dervishes. Thirdly a group that consists of hypocrites who just care about the outside elements of the religion. From this categorization, it is obvious that Shaikh Jām just preoccupied with religious community and did not pay attention to other classes of society, such as rulers and merchants. Moreover, he numerated the attributes of these classes from which one can guess his focus was on the ethics and spirituality and he did not concern about socio-political issues.

Zionism has different trends that are the results of the different conditions in which the Eastern and Western European Jews lived in 19th century. The cultural or spiritual Zionism is one of these trends. For understanding the nature of the cultural Zionism one should survey the ideas of Asher Ginzberg -known as Ahad Ha’am - an Eastern European Jewish thinker. This article after reviewing his biography tries to study his ideas and thoughts about the cultural Zionism. For establishing cultural Zionism, Ahad Ha’am tried to establish a Jewish cultural center, set up an educational system relying on Hebrew language and literature and employ Jewish elites. So, Ahad Ha’am, as one of the critics of political Zionism, is an important figure especially for understanding the contemporary Zionism. Indeed by surveying the cultural Zionism, one can realize that Zionism is not merely a political trend; rather than it could address other issues.

Among Middle Eastern religions, Judaism has the most extreme and inflexible Law which can be summarized in the concept of obedience. In Judaism, obedience has an ethnic and individual dimensions. According to this concept, there is a relationship between God and the People, so the obedience that God demands them to do, should be multilateral and complete like the wife’s obedience to her husband and the children's obedience to their father. However, obedience to God that is manifested originally in the Ten Commandments, has gradually been generalized to a wider range of people such as sages, prophets, parents, etc. Emphasizing on the rigidity of the Jewish law, this article firstly seeks to assert the importance of obedience and its dimensions; and secondly by investigating the Old Testament, as the fundamental document of Judaism, it tries to give a true perception of the Yahweh's tremendousness and His extreme sovereignty over the People. Consequently, it can be said that according to the teachings of the Old Testament, Yahweh’s sovereignty over the People and the individuals which mostly conduced to some worldly rewards, on top of which their settlement in the Promised Land, is so extreme and inflexible that disobedience from it ended up to a severe punishments throughout the history, such as diaspora, People's dependency to other nation and alteration or even invalidity of their selectness.