The Relationship between Reza Babaei’s Theology and Practical Theology

Abstract

Reza Babaei is one of the contemporary Iranian theologians who pays a lot of attention to practical theology so that his theological approach may be considered practical theology. Human suffering is his concern. He believes that the proper path of theology is to move from man and society to religion and asserts that the survival and decline of religions do not depend on their legitimacy or illegitimacy, but on their ability to meet specific human needs. There are major elements in his works that may be acknowledged as components of practical theology: emphasis on paying attention in theology to human needs, sympathy for the pain and sorrow of human suffering, focus on extra-textual knowledge, the priority of the mystical-moral readings of religion over dogmatic and exclusivist ones. In this article, the evidence for the existence of each of these components in his works has been explored.

Keywords

• practical theology
• reza babaei
• religion and human suffering
• religion and human needs
• religious intellectuals