نشریه معرفت کلامی
پیاپی 1 (بهار 1389)

The present study explains and reviews one of the nonrealistic and very new views on the nature of religious propositions. The "post liberal theology" is a new theological approach emerged with the purpose of creating religious unity and epistemological justification of religious pluralism. The main question of this study is the following: "what analysis on religious proposition does the post liberal theology present and how does it apply this analysis in religious unity and pluralism?" The writer has firstly tried to focus on the views of George Lindbeck, the most important figure in this theological approach, to explain the nonrealistic post liberal linguistic-cultural attitude and its role in unity. It then uses an analytical method to investigate and criticize this new method.

We may say that the discussion of religious language is something has been discussed in all celestial religions. The related discussions include the nature of religious language, the meaningfulness and effectiveness of various types of religious propositions. The most important discussion is pertaining to theological propositions, which have been for long the focus of attention on the part of religious philosophers and theologians. The related question is whether we may attribute limited human and material conceptions to the unlimited non-physical God.The present article deals with an investigation and comparison of the views of Allama Tabatabaie and the contemporary American philosopher of religion, William Alston, on the language of theology. Alston presents the theory of "Functionalism" to resolve the problem of attribution of theological proposition to God. To resolve this problem, Allama Tabatabaie presents the theories of "Semantic Commonality and Gradation of Existence", "Theological Hermeneutics", and "Finality", each of which is applicable somewhere. The theory of "Semantic Commonality" is applicable for attributes such as knowledge, power, life and existence, justifying their application; the second theory is applicable to attributes such as All-Hearing (samī)', All-Seeing (basīr), having hands, and occupying space; i.e. those attributes belonging to possibilities, being far away from Divine Presence. These attributes are interpreted based on the attributes of the first group, and the theory of Finality is applicable in conventional and religious language, justifying their application and veracity.

Theological and doctrinal topics have always been debated and much discussed, resulting in considerable verve and hilarity in the scientific sphere. Among these, the discussion on divine attributes is one of the most important and extensive discussions in the Islamic theology. Various views and positions have been presented in this regard, and different schools of thought have been formed. Among the important discussions in this regard is the question of why the Muslim thinkers have considered words such as 'Alīm, Qadīr, Hayy, etc. as God' attributes, while they have been used in Quran as God' name. This discussion arises from the following question: "Has the Islamic tradition and the transmitted sources of religion been formed through reflections and considerations by Muslim thinkers themselves, or was it informed by something outside the Islamic world?" In this regard, Harry Austryn Wolfson, the modern Islamologist, maintains that the discussion was adopted from Christian world, then introduced into Islamic world. The present research aims at an investigation of this claim and the related documents and evidences. The results show that his interpretation is wrong and the documents he presents are insufficient to prove his claims.

One of most popular views among Orientalists on the Quran is the view of the adapted Quran. While persons such as the German Theodore Noldke (1836-1931) and the Jewish Goldziher (1850-1921) enjoy a special prestige and status among Orientalists, it seems that the most voluminous scholarly work conducted by non-Muslims for denial of the reveled Quran and proving the view of its adaptation is the work done by the modern priest, Yusuf Durra Haddad (1913-1979). He believes that the Quran is neither a new book or invitation, nor does it contain an independent prophethood; Islam and the monotheism it propagates is the very ideas adapted from the Torah and the Bible, without anything else added; the only difference is that the Prophet propagated the Islam of "the Book" in Arabic for his Arab audiences.It seems that the main deficiencies of his work, causing him to widely distort the Quranic teachings, are his false theoretical presuppositions and bases, the most important of which are as follows:(1) The Quran is the translation and the Arabic version of "the Book"; (2) The holy Prophet is not the God's chosen prophet, and enjoys no miracle; (3) Islam contains no new and independent invitation; (4) Quran is an invitation to Christianity; and (5) The perfected forms of the prophethood and the celestial book are the Christ and the Bible.The present paper investigates the main theoretical bases of Yusuf Haddad's view, going on to an elaborate criticism of his theory.

The epic of Ashura glitters on the apex of the history after the lapse of centuries, quenching the thirsty soul of those men seeking the truth. This dramatic effect reveals the depth, dimensions and many overt and hidden aspects of this monumental event. Among these, the emotional and epical aspects of this event have been paid most attention to, though along with it, the analytical approach gradually found its place in the thought system of the thinkers, historians and reformers, in which – apart from heartfelt perception – the event is looked at through rational perception.The rational analysis of the event of Taff is acceptable only when we can make a consistency among the different elements of this monumental event. And this would not be done except when we, first of all, pay attention to the theological backgrounds and the doctrinal motivations deriving Imam Hussein towards this movement, and its historical, political and sociological elements are analyzed in the light of those backgrounds and motivations. In this regard, the present article expresses five views of Shiite thinkers in the theological approach to the philosophy of Imam Hussein's uprising, arriving at its chosen view through a review and investigation.

The present paper deals with a rereading and traditional investigating of Imamiyya theologian's common argument for Imam's impeccability in the early five centuries A.H. Since most arguments for Imam's impeccability presented today are an evolved form of those presented in the early centuries, the writer deals with an introduction and investigation of these arguments with the purpose of familiarity with their background. Though the starting point of resorting to transmitted argument to prove the Imam's impeccability was in the 2nd century with Hisham b. Abdul Malik, we cannot ignore the efforts made by Sheikh Mufid and Abul-Salah Halabi in consolidating the idea of Imam's impeccability through presenting a variety of transmitted arguments. Altogether, we may identify ten transmitted arguments on Imam's impeccability; here, we will investigate five Quranic verses in this regard.

The present study aims at finding out the views of the Prophet's household on the issue of divine appointment of Imams or their being elected by people. There are two views in this regard: most Shiites maintain that the Prophet's household are designated by God. On the contrary, some hold that according to the very Shiite sources, the belief in divine appointment of Imam is invalid; for according to these sources, the Prophet's household had no belief in Imam's divine appointment; rather, they believed in the office of Imamate – especially the political Imamate – as being dependent on people's opinion and thus being elective. The present study uses a descriptive-analytical method and studies the traditional sources to prove that the Prophet's household maintained that God has designated the Impeccable Imams for the guidance of the society, and also believe that He has genetically endowed the Impeccable Imam with a special status, having designated them as the intermediary for sending His blessings to the creatures. It is obligatory for the people to prepare the ground for the Impeccable Imam's sovereignty by accepting him.