A Reading List: Worldview and Religion

This list has been compiled at the request of young friends who seek to deepen their study of “worldview.” Young people concerned with thinking correctly about religious outlook and life—a religion with whose teachings they have grown up, willingly or not, and in which they now perceive fissures. Recommending these books does not imply endorsement of all their contents and doctrines. In principle, every text deserves to be read with a critical approach. The suggested books are such that, either directly or through their critique, one can become acquainted with the influential currents of religious thought in contemporary Iran and, to some extent, the modern world, and benefit from them in refining one’s own worldview; perhaps each book may serve as a clue leading to other books beyond this list. Understanding some of these books may require guidance from specialists.

This list is intended for readers with the following characteristics:

- Living in today’s Iran, a society whose informational-cultural background is constituted by “national-religious (Islamic)-modern world” values. - The books in group (A) are suitable for beginners who have at least completed a secondary school diploma and are possibly going through their university years. Group (B) is for those who have recently finished the first stage of university education, and group (C) is for those who have passed through the earlier stages and are faced with deeper questions. This list represents a mere sample from a vast abundance, and the absence of a book’s name from this list does not signify its unimportance. If, on average, one month to 45 days is allotted for studying each book, 8 to 10 titles can be placed on a year’s study agenda. An eager seeker can complete this course of study within a three-year timeframe; one can also proceed with this course of study with intervals between periods. It is hoped that studying the items on this list will prove beneficial in overcoming many doubts and peace-disturbing questions; although no end is conceivable for the chain of questions, and new bewilderments arise in the wake of previous questions.

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Hafez

A) First Stage; Parts one and two of the series An Introduction to Islamic Sciences (Logic and Philosophy), Morteza Motahhari Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder (available in multiple Persian translations) Applied Logic, Ali-Asghar Khandan The Philosophy of Supplication, Ali Shariati Causes of the Inclination toward Materialism, Morteza Motahhari The Dawn of Islam, Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub The Record of Islam, Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub Characteristics of the New Centuries, Ali Shariati Step by Step with Revelation, Mehdi Bazargan Wisdom and Livelihood, Abdolkarim Soroush

B) Second Stage; The Knowledge of Secrets, Intellectualism and Religiosity, Abdolkarim Soroush The Beginning of Contemporary New-Thinking, Maghsoud Farasatkhah Faith and Freedom, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari Letter to a Priest, Simone Weil, Forouzan Rasekhi Hermeneutics, the Book, and Tradition, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari Mysticism and Philosophy, Walter Terence Stace, Bahauddin Khorramshahi A Critique of the Official Reading of Religion, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari A Path to Liberation, Mostafa Malekian

c) Third Period; The Theoretical Contraction and Expansion of the Sharia, Abdolkarim Soroush The Fifth Dimension (An Exploration of the Spiritual Realm), John Hick, Behzad Saleki Reason and Religious Belief, Michael Peterson, Arash Naraghi and Ebrahim Soltani The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James, Hossein Kiani Psychology of Religion, David Wulff, Mohammad Dehghani A Journey in the Sphere of the Soul, selected and translated by: Mostafa Malekian The Expansion of the Prophetic Experience, Abdolkarim Soroush The Meaning of the Text, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Morteza Karimi-Nia .

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PDF file of the reading list: Worldview, Religion

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First edition; July 2017 Ardeshir Mansouri [email protected]

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