Reconstruction and Feasibility of Religious Science Based on Traditionalist Theory of Sacred Science

Abstract

Sacred Science is one of the traditionalists' principles among them some philosophers like Sayyed Hossein Nasr, Frithjof Schuon, and Rene Guenon can be noted. Having this principle, a theory of science, and a religious theory in general an Islamic one in particular, can be explained and reconstructed. This reconstruction reveals that traditionalists can be considered as advocates of religious science. In this paper, concepts like sacred science, and tradition and traditionalism are explained, criteria of classification of religious science's theories are mentioned, and theories of religious scienceare analyzed as minimal, maximal, and median ones, and also as reductive, established, and mixed theories. Reconstruction of traditionalists' account shows despite of differences among scholars' view, it is possible to accept religious science in a reductive approach based on sacred science, and traditional sciences can be shown as examples of religious science. Particularly, it can be said, in Sayyed Hossein Nasr's view, sciences with Islamic attributes are realized, and they have to be recognized in contemporary age; in other words, Islamic sciences must be revived.

Keywords

• religious science
• traditionalism
• sacred science
• sayyed hossein nasr
• frithjof schuon
• rene guenon