Religious Diversity in Contemporary Shi‘i Thought

The question of religious diversity and the related issues of validity, truth, and salvation can immensely impact our lives in the modern closely-knit global society: they may help improve or ruin the relationships between faith communities. In the context of Christianity, these issues have led to the emergence of three types of theology: exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. This book analyses the views of two contemporary Shi‘i thinkers, Ayatollah ‘Abdullah Javadi-Amoli and Professor Mahmoud Mustafa Ayoub, who have tried to deal with the challenges posed by the above three types of theology from an Islamic perspective. 

The book discusses, among other things, the impact of the social and educational backgrounds of these two thinkers on their research methodologies, particularly their ways of interpreting the Qur’an. Since both thinkers are interested in the question of dialogue between people of different faiths, this inquiry also highlights the views of Ayoub and Javadi-Amoli on the question of dialogue, its common ground, goals, conditions, and presuppositions.

Saeid Sobhani is a Shi’i scholar specialising in the main fields of the classical Islamic disciplines including theology, philosophy, jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence, exegesis of the Qur’an, history, biographical studies, and fundamentals of belief, on each of which he has authored a number of books and articles. Sobhani has studied under many grand scholars including Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli, Ayatollah Mirza Jawad Tabrizi, and Ayatollah Ja’far Sobhani. His publications include Nayl al-Watar min Qa’idat la Darar (The Jurisprudential Maxim of No Harm, 1999) and Jahan-bini va Shenakht (Epistemology, 1988).