Why this book?
- To understand that religious interpretation and juridical inference are not separate from ethical presuppositions.
- To become familiar with one of Abolghasem Fanaei’s important works on the relation between ethics and religion.
- For readers interested in moral philosophy, philosophy of religion, and reforming religious understanding.
- To see the role of concepts such as justice, rationality, and epistemic responsibility in the study of religion.
- To reflect on whether fiqh can remain indifferent to ethics.
About the book
"The Ethics of Religious Studies," subtitled "An Inquiry into the Epistemological and Ethical Foundations of Jurisprudence," is one of Abolghasem Fanaei's important works on the relationship between ethics and religion. The book's central question is to what extent the understanding of religion, the interpretation of religious texts, and jurisprudential inference depend on ethical and epistemological presuppositions.
In this book, Fanaei defends the idea that religious studies is not a neutral and impartial activity from an ethical standpoint. Every interpreter, jurist, or religious scholar enters the understanding of religion with criteria concerning rationality, justice, fairness, honesty, and epistemic responsibility; therefore, ethics plays a role not only in religious practice but also in the very process of knowing and interpreting religion.
This book can be read as a continuation of Fanaei's intellectual project on the relationship between ethics and religion; a project also pursued in works such as "Religion in the Scales of Ethics." If that book deals more with the general relationship between religious ethics and independent ethics, "The Ethics of Religious Studies" focuses its attention on the method of understanding religion, the foundations of jurisprudence, and the ethical responsibility of the religious scholar.