The Hermeneutic Dialectical between Reason and Religion: A New Approach to Their Relation

Abstract

There are four main theories concerning the explanation of the relation between “reason and religion” including rationalism, traditionalism, primacy of reason, and primacy of revelation. In this article, after a review of these theories, I shall argue that none of them is satisfactory and thus, we should look for an alternative theory. I suggest that the dialectical hermeneutical approach to the relation between reason and religion can be such a satisfactory theory which avoids the difficulties with the aforementioned theories. I shall explain the theory by means of some philosophical hermeneutical foundations and show how it is rooted in the views of Mulla Sadra and his followers.

Keywords

• the problem of reason and religion
• primacy of reason
• primacy of religion
• rationalism
• traditionalism
• philosophical hermeneutics
• the hermeneutic dialectical of reason and religion