پژوهشنامه ادیان
سال سیزدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 25، بهار و تابستان 1398)

Sufism has designated the stages and processes involved in the levels of the sufist’s progression under the rubric of Station. In the light of the revered place that Imam Ali (PBUH) holds in Islam, leading texts on Sufism quote the Imam frequently touching these stages and levels. Sufists have rightly recognized that some of Imam’s revered remarks are open to a mystic interpretation. Mystics have had access to Imam’s legacy of quotes and remarks through either official sources of quotes or the traditional orally handed ones. The latter source has especially fed into certain meanings and lines that have no precedent even in Shiite sources and texts; it is a remarkable source to get to know the revered Holy Imam. Statistically speaking, the legacy of Imam’s quotes and remarks in all of its coverage of concepts and meanings has provided the one dependable source of reference for concepts to do with Stations and most expressions concerning States. Nevertheless, in view of the sheer number of schools of thought developed in Sufism, the book Al-luma’ fi al-tasawwuf will act as the mainstay and frame of reference in this study.

In the late eleventh century, the troubadour school with features of nobility, Polytheism, and anti-religion was established in the southern parts of France. The Arab had influenced this school a lot, and then it moved from Paris to London and created the Minnesang in Germany. In Italy it produced a delicate style of the poetry which provided the context for the advent of Dante. Troubadours were poets who had love as their character. The Albigensian Crusade terminated Troubadours in 1209 A.D., Pope Innocent III started this crusade which is the most terrible Crusades of European History. Troubadours were connected to Albigensian in those periods, although the Albigensian movement was actually a protest against the medieval clergy. Therefore, Troubadours and their developments of love thinking were complicatedly integrated to religious life. The concepts and theme of the poems and songs of Troubadours are generally derived from the daily life issues, especially the dissemination of the Catharism. Regarding the intimidation and horror caused by priests, the Catharism chose the poetry of Troubadours in order to disseminate their own heresy.

Although in cultures and religions, the living conditions of the righteous after death in heaven is explained in different ways, but common to all of them is that heaven is a place of comfort and convenience. Swedenborg who is a Protestant Christian, depicted paradise structure based on his intuition and in accord with Christian concepts. His heaven is based on love to the Lord. In the afterlife, the better qualities from the Lord in his inside, more of the light of God will benefit. We were created to become an angel, and the Lord creates Paradise for those who are in heaven and angels and all the blessings of love and wisdom God gives them. Lord is man and heaven is his image; the angels are like human beings. The inner side of man is form of heaven to the extent that the inner qualities of love and faith is; but different from humans with angels is that the the outer layers of man is form of this world, and to the extent that we engage in charitable and good, world into us becomes a paradise.

One of the effective schools of thought in the formation and coherence of the Chinese cosmological imagery is the “Yin-Yang School”. “Tsou Yen” and “Tung-Chung Shu”, as the main characters of this school, adapted many beliefs of the ancient Chinese people and applied them in the systematic formulation of their cosmology. The findings of the present study, which is descriptive-analytic, show that, contrary to what may seem at first glance, “Yin-Yang” as a school, is essentially unitary, not dualism-oriented. The cosmology of the “Yin-Yang” school is more consistent with the pattern of issuance of multiplicity from unity; in that, according to it, Tao issues “Taiji” or “Great Ultimate”, and the “Taiji”, issues the contradictory and complementary forces of the universe, “Yin” and “Yang”. The result of the “Yin” and “Yang” integration is the emergence of “Wu-hsing” or “Five Elements”. And at last, the plurality of innumerable phenomena is condidered the various formulas of the “Wu-hsing” compound. The eschatological declarations of this school indicate that, at the end of the world, the multiplicity, as the issuance from the “Tao”, goes back to their original source.

Considering Human as “Caliph of God on the earth” is now accepted as a Muslim doctrine; however, in the Holy Quran, this term is not mentioned and the term “caliphate” is mentioned twice in the Qur'an. The main meaning of the word "Khalifa" is the succession and replacement of the present person to the absent person, and it seems that the purpose of the Quran was to use this term and derivatives of that meaning, and “the caliph of Allah” has a contradictory meaning, because God The present and the ruler of the world, described in the Holy Qur'an, is not absent from being replaced. On the other hand, historical studies show that this term was not accepted by the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, but gradually, perhaps for political reasons, it was used by the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs in the political literature of that time. The political sphere entered into the fields of commentary, mysticism, philosophy and theology, and human beings were considered as the caliph of the Lord in the earth. This article seeks to examine and critique the meaning of the term “caliphate”.

One of the key concepts in the Pascal's religious and theological thought, especially in the Pensées, is the Heart. Pascal in this book uses form the Heart for different theological and moral aims and sees its importance as the importance of the knowledge of human being and the knowledge of God. He considers the Heart from three viewpoints, or by three functions, means rational, volitional and faithful. He tries to show that although some philosophers considered for human being different faculties but the basis of them in the Heart. In this article we will try to show that despite the diffused structure of  Pensées, we can see threefold functions for the Heart and then will show that the Heart is the basis and foundation of the nature of human being.

By “cultural domain of religion” we mean a religion which by passing through centuries and among nations and races has changed, mixed with different human cultures and become as what we meet it today. Religion and human affect each other and as the result of this affection there are many products, some endured till now and some had stopped and died. Denominations, schools and sects are parts of these products. These changes for a religion are the price of remaining in long time and expanding in the world. Is it possible to distinguish some borders for orthodoxy of a religion and its spiritual effectiveness during this cultural reciprocity? What is the boundaries and domain of human innovations in a religion? What are the proportions of independent intelligence, ethics and modern science with religion from the epistemological and hierarchical point of view? In this research we respond to such questions from two view points. First we speak about Traditionalist’s opinion who believe in a common tradition existing in depth of all religions. This stream of consciousness set out with R.Guenon in early 20th century and grew with systematized activities of F.Schuon. After that we will speak about contemporary Iranian contemporary religious intellectuals like A.Soroush, M. Malekian, M.Shabestari and M.Kadivar. Finally we will compare these two view points.

Hinduism deals with body more than any other religions do. Therefore, it is necessary to study Hindu views on body. Through the study a rich resource of Hindu concepts and beliefs about the spiritual significance of body is revealed. Also, it provides a deeper look into Hindu cosmology. Considering ascetics and yogis’ life style equal to the whole doctrine of Hinduism or some presuppositions about dualism of soul and matter have led to some misunderstandings about the dominant stand that Hinduism takes with this worldly life. This research intends to clarify Hindu attitudes toward body by reflecting on Hindu views about worldly life and the significant role body plays in Hindu principles. Studying Tantrism, because of its special views about body, can be helpful. Tantarism, particularly tantric yoga, believes in the wisdom of body and considers it as a main means of salvation. Tantarism takes body as a recourse to reach the quiet.

The time in Hinduism is considered in a way different from that of Semitic religions. According to Hindu beliefs, the time is a complication of recurrent internal circles which repeat regularly, and the shortest of them is constituted of four periods which the last of them is called Kali Yuga. So, the Kali Yuga can be considered somehow as ‘the End of Time’ in Hinduism. The Hindu Scriptures have described Kali Yuga mostly with a character of prevailing of the bad over the good, and refer to appearance of a savior who will make the good prevail on the bad, and will provide a way to enter a new glorious period of time, which is the first period of the next regular circle. However, the fine examinations show that there is a slight discord between the texts, and such an unpleasant description of Kali Yuga comes from the especial situations during which the later Hindu texts were written. In this article, we will examine the concept of ‘circling time’ in Hindu beliefs and the descriptions of Kali Yuga in Hindu scriptures, and we will examine also the ideas which compare it with different periods of the history, especially with the period of time in which we live.

Āzar-kayvān and his disciplines were founder of a sect in the 10th century which was famed as “Izadiyān, Yazdāniyān, Ābādiyān, sepāsiyān, Hušiyān, Anušagān, Āzarhušangiyān and Āzariyān”. Due to the attention of Āzar-kayvān to the Philosophy of Illumination (Hekmat al-Eshraq) and the tradition of Ancient Iran, he is identified as a Zoroastrian mystic who tried to renew the old tradition and languages of ancient Iran. Moreover most of the researchers believe him as a Zoroastrian Mobads of Fars, who travelled to India and wrote some books there. In this article, it is studied the issue of Zoroaster and Zoroastrian beliefs in the Āzar-kayvāni’s writings. What the Āzar-kayvānis have written about Zoroastrian beliefs, are quoted from the Islamic and Zoroastrian Persian books and there is not any quotation from Avestan or Middle Persian writings. Besides, the Āzar-kayvānis didn’t incorporate themselves into the formal Zoroastrians, though they recognize Zoroaster as a Prophet of God.

Genesis 3 is one of the most challenging texts for feminist Interpreters. Phyllis Trible as a representative of the school of liberal feminist interpretation and Mieke Bal as a representative of the school of Postmodern feminist interpretation interpret this text and in this article Common and differences points between these two streams, the interpretation of the Genesis text, are shown. Both interpreters are trying on the approach of pro-Eve to reduce the Eve's responsibility in original sin. Trible with commitment to text and acknowledge  of Eve's mistake in original sin  sees the Gender of Eve has not effect in Occurrence of sin. She believes that the punishment of God is result of original sin's Irregularities. Miike Bell with creative interpretation believe   that Eve's act duty in the path to perfection to the formation of human's identity, human beings continue with sexual knowledge. She believes  God's punishment of sin is result of original sin and create responsible

In religious Life guilt is a common emotional experience. This study has been carried out to find out: How the Old and New Testaments speak about guilt? What are the words used by the Old and New Testaments writers in explaining the mental process involved in experiencing guilt? As Guilt was first vividly analyzed in psychoanalytic tradition, this question has also been discussed: Does the Bible’s language and narrative of guilt correspond to Psychoanalytic narrative and terms? In the Old Testament, guilt is dealt with more fully in Psalms. In the New Testament Paul is the Chief figure that describes and explains guilt. The Basic structure of guilt narrative is the same in the Old Testament, New Testament and Psychoanalysis, but throughout history differentiated words and terms have reinforced writer’ explanatory competence and they have reached a more explicit language.