نشریه هفت آسمان
پیاپی 44 (زمستان 1388)

The Didache of the Twelve Apostles is among the key and well-known texts of earliest Christianity; its author, the place and time of its composition, and even its original form are not clear; it was not rediscovered until the nineteenth century. However, there seems to be a general consensus among the scholars that this work reflects an important period in the history of Christianity, that is, the period when Christianity was gaining relative independence and the Jewish-Christians, the addressees of this work, were seeking to distinguish themselves from the Graeco-Roman pagans and the Jews through their particular way of life. The present version of Didache is divided into four parts: the first part is concerned with the Two Ways of life and death in terms of moral teachings; the second part deals with particular guidelines on how to worship; the third part occupies itself with the apostles and prophets of the church; the final part goes through the apocalypse and readiness for Christ's Return. The following writing is the first Persian translation of the Didache from classical Greek, preceded by the translator's introductory considerations.

According to the Christian theology, God is hidden and unattainable; and man is unable to know Him. However, in order to show human beings the way of salvation, God comes out of His hiding place, revealing Himself, His goals and will to them. The Christians call whatever reveals God, His demands, and will Revelation. The divine revelations are of two types: general and special. God's presence in the system of nature, historical events and man's conscience exemplify the general revelation. The generality of this type of revelation means that one can deduce the existence of God from His creation. On the other hand, the special revelation occurs only to particular people on particular occasions. The miracles, Prophethood, Incarnation, the Bible, and personal experiences exemplify this type of revelation. In this writing, having pointed out the conceptual difference between God's Revelation on the one hand and revelation as well as inspiration in Islamic literature on the other, I shall occupy myself with elaborating on the types of God's revelation in terms of Christian theology.

The myths across the world contain significant references to the beliefs of the past generations; since they have been mainly concerned with answering such major questions as the origin of the universe and resurrection. This is an undertaking which is best sought by the Holy Quran through its eloquent style of communication in the cosmic scale. However, there is no conflict between the grandeur of the Quran and its comparison with the mythological beliefs; since the comparative study of these myths and the Quranic narrations will occupy a new ground in the universal Quranic discourse. One of the mythological themes is concerned with the origin of the universe and man, with the women taking up a remarkable position. The present paper gives a concise account of the mythological-Quranic reading; and then, it embarks upon the comparative study of woman, birth, and life. One of the benefits of this issue is the consideration of the significant status of woman as viewed by the Holy Quran, which has been either neglected or misinterpreted. The Quranic view on woman, according to some thinkers, is limited to a number of jurisprudential decrees which are based on some imperfect understanding; as a result, some people have assumed that Islam is a patriarchal and discriminatory religion.

One can firmly claim that the Sufi sect has been the object of more criticism than any other Islamic sects; and it may be the only sect that has been criticized by every group. A large number of critics have even considered Sufism outside the sphere of Islam, tracing its origins to the non-Islamic sources. However, according to some impartial people, including the outsiders such as some orientalists, Sufism originates in the knowledge-promoting Islam. Appealing to the Prophet's traditions as well as those of the Infallible Imam's (PBUT) is one of the ways in which the opponents of Sufism criticize it. They hold that it has been rejected by the religious leaders, presenting some traditions to confirm their claim. The present writing is an attempt to examine the traditions ascribed to the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH) in terms of authenticity and content, evaluating the accuracy of the claims made by the opponents of Sufism.

Tantric Buddhism, along with the Hinayana and Mahayana, is one of the Buddhist traditions. This tradition, which consists of a set of beliefs and practices bound up with tantric scriptures, is mainly regarded as intuitional. The tantric texts began to appear since about the third century AD; and the fact that there are a large number of them shows its significance. This tradition is associated with a variety of meditations and rituals which are concerned with the worldly affairs, being a means of achieving salvation and Buddhahood as well. In about the seventh century AD, it was also known as Vajrayana, the diamond way. Mantranaya, the path of mantras, is another term which refers to the tantric Buddhism. This title indicates that the use of mantra is the characteristic aspect of tantric practice. Other features of this tradition are as follows: initiation, incarnation, invocation and worship of gods, use of mandalas, and the presence of the Guru (teacher).

This article examines the intellectual relationship between Zoroastrians and Muslims during the early Islamic period, trying to consider one of the cases in which the followers of the new religion (Islam) are indebted to the older one (Zoroastrianism). The hypothesis of the paper is that Wasil ibn Ata, the founder of the Mutazilite school of Islamic thought, has borrowed Hammistagan, the doctrine of the intermediate station, from his ancestors and incorporated it into the Mutazilite thought. Jean de Menasce had once referred to this relationship in his article entitled "Mutazilah and Mazdean Theology". Based on this argument and the evidence provided by Gahan, Zoroaster's own hymns, and Denkard, the most important scripture of Zoroastrians in Pahlavi, Adhami attempts to confirm the same hypothesis.

In the study of religion, in addition to the ways such as theology and sociology of religion, there is a religious way of studying religion. This way is characterized by two features: first, it is mainly concerned with the insider or believer's perspective; and second, it does not take the nature of religion into consideration. In explaining the religious way of studying religion, Sharma takes two steps: negative and positive. In the first step, he elaborates on the distinction between the religious way and the confessional and reductionist ways. In the second step, on the one hand, he shows that just as there is an artistic way of studying art, there is a religious way of studying religion; and on the other hand, based on the phenomenological meaning of religion, he emphasizes that the possibility of a religious way in the study of religion need not mean that religion itself is religious. And then, he proceeds to argue that religion, as the subject of the religious way, can be identified as operating at four levels: at the level of the individual believer, at the level of a religious tradition, at the level of the religious traditions as a whole, and at the most generic level.