نشریه معرفت ادیان
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 6، بهار 1390)

Moral decadence means failure to take the course of perfection or deviate from it as a result of acquiring moral vices. The real perfection and happiness are the concepts whose definition and determination of their instances depend on the type of world view in a moral system. The moral systems of the Holy Qur’an and four Gospels, due to their common origin, define the real perfection and happiness as "drawing nigh to God" and its conditions as faith and commitment to pious deeds. Accordingly, man can achieve the real happiness, that is, eternal salvation and triumph, because he enjoys the blessing of free will, has a definite aim, and tries to achieve it. However, he may fail to take the perfection path due to those factors that undermine or take away his faith. These factors commonly emphasized in the Holy Qur’an and four Gospels are as follows: sensual desire, world, and Satan. The world is the object of the sensual desire and Satan approves and adorns the sensual desires.

The present paper tries to discuss briefly "the relationship between faith and reason" and "the relationship between religion and philosophy". It also discusses the methodology of theology and how this relationship can be established with "modern science" and culture.Theology is a normative science and based on rationality, which needs interactions with all human and social sciences and even natural sciences. Using diverse methods of argumentation, it "justifies cognitively" the religious propositions. Making known the rational nature of theology as an independent and distinct science, this paper discusses its functions, its links with the culture of the society, its position and necessity in order to clarify what needs are met by theology, why it has flourished in the context of nearly all religions, as it is present in the context of all religious traditions now.

The present paper studies the question that why Bahaism is considered to be a sect, using an analytical-documentary approach. Its findings are resulted from the study of the main questions that Why is Bahaism a sect and how can the features of a sect can be applied to it? The research findings show that Muslim scholars and authorities of imitation consider Bahaism as a misleading sect, because it deviates from indisputable primary and secondary principles of Islam. Furthermore, it is a sect because it has some features as follows: 1. It has clever, acute, sophistic, sanctimonious(pretending to be pious), and despotic leaders; 2. It has a well-formed organization of the Universal House of Justice which acts like free masonries; and 3. It makes use of psychological propagandist techniques such as mind control to deceive, attract, and retain people.

Wars have been important events in the memory of man's life and are of considerable importance when religion's stands on war have provided the ground for the eruption or prevention of men's wars throughout the history. Meanwhile, the scope of Church's (Christianity) social activities with their ups and downs has had an important role in political changes in western societies. The ancient Church (Christianity) had a theology based on reliable Christian texts and commentaries. However, the emergence of Protestantism in recent centuries has caused current commentaries – especially Catholic reading – to lose their credit and has extended the sphere of influence of commentaries based on the biblical text. This has paved the ground for Christian believer's to have direct reference to the Bible which encompasses all aspects of a Christian's life including war.As a reliable source, the New Testament has always been the origin of thoughts of Christian political theologians in understanding the principles of war legitimacy but it does not have a clear and explicit system as to the philosophy of theology of war; however, new studies on these texts have led to the emergence of attitudes about theoretical philosophy of war which are often justifiable in two ranges of war prohibition and war legitimacy.

Crusades are among the longest wars throughout the history which has given historians opportunities to use them as pretext to write about them for two centuries. The reason for these wars, what justification their initiators and wagers had to legitimate these violent wars and what were the nature and principles of Muslim's Jihad against these Christian aggressors in thoughts and views of contemporary jurists are topics which require discussion and reflection.The main hypothesis of the present paper is that Crusades have been the perfect example of holy wars which the new doctrines proposed by Christian clerics on "just war" have not been able to change their nature, because the historical reports about these wars do not allow for their conformity with just war doctrine. Muslim's Jihads against crusaders – whether as preemptive Jihad or as defensive and preventive Jihads–were defensive in nature which contemporary Sunni and Shi’ī jurist consider them as legitimate.

The ritual of sacrifice is the most ancient ritual in most religions. Throughout the history, men have tried to attract God's or god's satisfaction and prevent their wrath and anger by submitting presents and sacrifices to them. The origin of sacrifice in religions is divine decree, but this ritual has been subject to many changes and developments during different periods of history for different reasons. However, despite these changes and developments, the performance of this ritual in different religions has some similarities such as remembering God and having the intention of drawing nigh to Him when doing the sacrifices. There are some differences in some cases such as the status of sacrifice in the religion and its liturgies. In order to better expound the matter, it is advisable to seek the origin of the sacrifice in various periods of the history and its nature and to know how it was performed in previous religions. Was this holy ritual subject to distortion, too? The present paper tries to study the emergence and history of sacrifice, the aims and motives of offering sacrifice, and deviations and distortions appeared in its meaning and performance.

The Buddhism is an ethical religion which has practical concerns rather than theoretical ones. Buddha's concern was man's liberation from suffering, and his attainment to Nirvana (cessation, extinction). Introducing Buddhism in brief, the present paper discusses the principles, purpose, ranks, and scope of Buddhist ethics, and finally studies and criticizes some of its doctrines. The principles of Buddhist ethics are as follow: the ‘four noble truths,’ Karma (work, action) rule, and the principle of incarnation. Not all men can achieve complete moral perfection; a Buddhist must liberate himself from avarice, grudge, and deceit, and conduct with others friendly and sympathetically. According to Buddha, man will be liberated from suffering and reincarnation in this world and achieve eternal peace and salvation by liberating himself from personal and social concerns and by subduing of all sensual desires and drives.