Review of The Epistemology of Religion in the Works of Mirza Mahdi Esfahani

In this research, after a short introduction to epistemology and epistemology of religion, we have turned to Mirza Mahdi Isfahani to find out what would be his answers to the questions with which these fields of studies are concerned. His theory of immediate knowledge first denies the intervention of any concept in the process of consciousness and second, rejects the possibility of knowing knowledge itself. Accordingly, he refutes any theorizing concerning knowledge and the process through which it is gained. Therefore, he denies the key concepts of epistemology, such as syllogism, mediation of concepts, and propositional knowledge. Thus, he considers knowing as the immediate finding of the known and rely on simply reminding this clear but non-conceptual truth. The same view is kept to be held in epistemology of religion, which leads to the denial of any conceptual knowledge of God, the most high. Isfahani, instead, considers the knowledge of God to be immediate and produced by God Himself. Consequently, religious language is perfectly cognitive and the words used in it signify without any conceptual mediation the divine entity known immediately by servants. According to this view, God, the most high, is taken to be beyond proof, disproof, questioning, and disbelief, belief, and doubt are totally free actions taken by the addresses after knowing God. Isfahani maintains that, with this non-conceptual, immediate, and general knowledge of God, the next step to be taken is acting properly, not thinking concerning what is not thinkable. He believes that this knowledge was accorded by God at the very beginning of creation and its continuance is also due to divine agency. In the meanwhile, the messengers of God are tasked with reminding humans of this divinely bestowed knowledge of God and abiding by their commands, which is the very servitude of God, removes the veils of ignorance from the knowledge of God. At the end, some objections against Isfahani’s epistemology of religion are addressed and fully criticized. In so doing, the author takes side with Isfahani with respect to his epistemology of religion.