“The Relation Between Rationality and Religiosity; An Investigation to the Viewpoints of Mustafa Malekian and Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari”

The primary concern of this research is to find what solution(s) Mustafa Malekian and Muhammad Mujtahed Shabestari have proposed for the relation between rationality and religiosity. In the first section, the subject matter and its importance as well as the background and research methodology have been explained. Having mentioned the most important viewpoints about rationality and religiosity, this research tries to provide an overview of these two concepts. In second and third sections, the viewpoints of Malekian and Shabestari about rationality, religiosity and their relation have been analyzed. Malekian has spoken of two types of religiosity, one of which relies on theoretical and practical adherence to religious laws, and the other adopts a critical approach to religious teachings. Due to his deontological Perception of rationality, he considers the first type of religiosity incompatible with rationality, therefore, he proposes a second type of religiosity and calls it spirituality. Mujtahid Shabestari proposes two Perceptions of religion: an ultra-human Perception which considers the religion as a set revealed by God and a humanistic Perception which views religion as a humanistic phenomenon that must not be incompatible with humanistic assets including sciences. Accepting the rationality of this viewpoint, he offers three suggestions for the relation between rationality and religiosity: reconsideration and reconstruction of religious teachings; interpretation and understanding of religious text and test of faith in religious traditions. In the last section, viewpoints of Malekian and Shabestari are reviewed and the foundations of their views, their approaches and methods as well as the consequences of their views about the relation between rationality and religiosity are compared. It is found that they both maintain that the fundamental propositions of religions have not been proven and therefore, both consider the traditional religiosity as irrational; however, their differing views about rationality has led to selecting different approaches and methods and therefore arriving at different conclusions about the relation of rationality and religiosity.