Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion by Mostafa Zali

What is often referred to in the public sphere of our country as "new theology" (kalam-e jadid) is a title that, for historical reasons, is applied to a set of issues that took shape in the Western tradition under the name of philosophy of religion. Philosophy of religion seeks a philosophical examination of the central concepts of religions, such as the concept of God and the arguments for the existence of God, the relationship between science and religion, the epistemology of religious belief, the attributes of God, bodily resurrection, and the problem of evil. Hence, philosophy of religion can be seen as the intersection of diverse philosophical fields such as metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

This course focuses on the issues raised in the tradition of contemporary philosophy of religion with a comparative approach. To pursue a comparative approach to the issues of philosophy of religion, one of the introductory texts of contemporary philosophy of religion[1] will be discussed and examined alongside selected discussions from the twelfth stage of the book Nihayat al-Hikmah. The aim of this course is to become acquainted with the issues of contemporary philosophy of religion through a comparative approach.

The antiquity of the issues raised in philosophy of religion can be traced back to the antiquity of the history of philosophy itself, and specifically, the Platonic-Aristotelian philosophical tradition, which also continued within the philosophical traditions current in the Abrahamic religions, has always attended to the question of the nature of God as the first reality, His attributes, God's relation to the world, and the purposiveness of creation. However, in the second half of the twentieth century, from within the tradition of analytic philosophy, we witness a renewed return to philosophical inquiry concerning religious concepts. Today, philosophy of religion has become a serious current in universities worldwide, with research on it being widely published in the form of articles and books. Therefore, familiarity with the fundamental concepts and issues raised in this scholarly tradition is both intensely fascinating and impactful due to the importance of its subject matter for human life, and it can assist the audience interested in philosophical research in entering new and hotly debated areas.

Thus, the necessity of attending to philosophy of religion, apart from its great importance in academic circles and the breadth of philosophical research conducted on its topics, goes back to the vast human attachment to religion and the issues raised in religions, such as the nature of reality and the ultimate foundation of reality, the purposiveness of creation, the limitations of human reason, and its effect on the norms governing life.

The questions raised in this tradition are deeply fascinating, fateful, and controversial: Are there acceptable reasons for believing in God? Can human beings rely on their own reason to find the norms governing their lives, or do the limitations of rational inquiry necessarily make humans need a source beyond reason? How is revelation possible? Is the existence of evils in this world compatible with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient God? Are God's attributes compatible with the simplicity of the Divine Essence? Can God, while being simple and pure actuality, attend to the world? Is God's knowledge of particulars compatible with human free will?

The above questions, which have undoubtedly been among the most important questions facing human life from ancient times until now, are addressed in the domain of philosophy of religion, and in this course, we will try, considering the set of limitations, to answer some of them.

In this course, the presentation of issues is not confined to the tradition of contemporary philosophy of religion, and given the similarity of issues, a comparative approach will be pursued. To this end, after presenting the issues with regard to their contemporary formulation based on available sources, that issue will be formulated in the tradition of Islamic philosophy with regard to the twelfth stage of the book Nihayat al-Hikmah.

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Audio of Session One

Audio of Session Two

Audio of Session Three

Audio of Session Four

Audio of Session Five

Audio of Session Six

Audio of Session Seven

Audio of Session Eight

Audio of Session Nine

Audio of Session Ten

Audio of Session Eleven

Audio of Session Twelve

Audio of Session Thirteen

Audio of Session Fourteen

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[1] An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, 3rd Edition