RESUMO
The cliché of the clergymen or the religious scholars battling against modern science oversimplifies the history of the encounter between modern science and religion, especially in the case of non-Western societies. Many religious scholars, Muslim and Christian, not only did not oppose modern science but used it instrumentally to propagate their religions. Marwa Elshakry, in her brilliant study of Darwin's opinions among the Arab World, concentrates more on Arab Christians and Sunni Muslims rather than on Shiite Muslims. Muhammad-Rida Isfahani, a Shiite clergyman educated in Islamic theology in Najaf, composed A Critique of Darwin's Philosophy in 1912 as a review of the theory of evolution. However, even before the publication of this book, controversy concerning this topic had been raging in the Arab World for decades. Under the influence of Muslim scholars (Sunni and Shiite) to reconcile modern science with Islam, Isfahani did his best to gather knowledge of modern biology. He applied his self-taught knowledge of modern biology to find new solutions to the difficulties of establishing a dialogue between Islam and modern science. Thanks to the rationalism of his premodern scientific education, Isfahani was more sympathetic towards science than many of his Arab counterparts and able to deeply engage in these debates. Isfahani believed that the theory of evolution in nonhumans did not contradict Islamic discourse nor experimental and rational facts. Nevertheless, he denied the theory of human evolution as a nonscientific hypothesis. He justified his opinion through a detailed refutation of Darwin's heuristic evidence for human evolution in the first chapter of Descent of Man, such as the similarities between anatomy, embryology, and vestigial organs in humans and other animals. He also referred to other Western evolutionists of his time, such as Alfred Russel Wallace and Rudolf Virchow, who also rejected human evolution, and added some other scientific refutations of his own. Undoubtedly, Isfahani's final aim was to demonstrate the possibility of reconciliation between religion in general, and Islam in particular, with modern science. This article provides a detailed consideration of Isfahani's opinions, identifying his Arabic sources and comparing them to the original non-Arabic sources. I also examine the scientific details of Isfahani's achievements and the roots of his misunderstandings.
RESUMO
ABSTRACT: After the Occultation, the moment when the shiites' messiah disappeared, Shiism broke into two tendencies: the traditional-quietist and the rationalist-political. These two tendencies coexisted for centuries; only quite recently has their balance tilted towards the rationalist-political side, which brought about (principally) the Khomeini revolution in Iran. This article seeks to explore the mode of the social ties in Shia Islam from a psychoanalytic perspective, in terms of its original mystical practices as well as of the political and religious consequences of the decline of traditionalist discourse and the political emergence of "jurist-theologian" with its corollary, the Adversary.
Resumo: Depois da Ocultação, aquele momento em que o messias xiita desapareceu, o xiismo se dividiu em duas tendências: a tradicional-quietista e a racionalista-política. Essas duas tendências coexistiram durante séculos; só muito recentemente seu equilíbrio foi inclinado para o lado racionalista-político, o que provocou (principalmente) a revolução Khomeinista no Irã. Este artigo procura explorar o modo do vínculo social no Islã xiita a partir de uma perspectiva psicanalítica, em termos de suas práticas místicas originais, bem como das consequências políticas e religiosas do declínio do discurso tradicionalista e da emergência política da figura do "jurista-teólogo", com seu corolário, o Adversário.
