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Publication Date: 2025
Journal Of Medical Ethics And History Of Medicine (20080387)18
Philosophical counseling increasingly recognizes the role of spirituality and ethics within multicultural contexts. This paper aims to address a gap in counselor education regarding clear guidelines for integration of moral and spiritual concepts into counseling and proposes a conceptual-practical model. Methodologically, this study undertakes a comprehensive literature review, synthesizing professional publications on philosophical counseling, spirituality, and ethical principles from institutions such as the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Psychology and Counseling Organization of Iran (PCOI). The paper conceptualizes an ethical framework for spirituality in philosophical counseling and advocates for the incorporation of competency, values, open-mindedness, client welfare, confidentiality, and moral rehabilitation into the curricula. This theoretical model, requiring future empirical validation, aims to enhance practitioners' spiritual literacy and ethical abilities. The study outcomes underscore the imperative for philosophical counselors to synchronize their approaches meticulously with the distinct values, requirements, priorities, and anticipations articulated by their clients. This alignment intrinsically validates the client's inherent autonomy and their capacity for self-determination in decision-making processes. Consequently, it is paramount that philosophical counselors exercise judicious caution to circumvent the inadvertent imposition of their personal values or religious convictions, as such actions would fundamentally contravene the ethical principle of client autonomy. This alignment intrinsically validates the client's inherent autonomy and their capacity for self-determination in decision-making processes. Consequently, it is paramount that philosophical counselors exercise judicious caution to circumvent the inadvertent imposition of their personal values or religious convictions, as such actions would fundamentally contravene the ethical principle of client autonomy. © 2025 Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
Publication Date: 2025
Religions (20771444)16(10)
Christian Liberation Theology highlights a spirituality that is deeply tied to the fight for socio-political freedom. This perspective argues that spirituality, when practiced as a way of life, is essential for meaningful liberation. It represents a fresh take on Christian faith and discipleship, one that arises from the lived realities of the poor and oppressed. This approach has significantly influenced both Catholic and evangelical communities, blending spiritual and political elements into a unique theological framework. The research underscores that within this context, Liberation Theology redefines faith and spirituality as active, lived experiences that contribute to tangible social change. Spiritual people are not detached or indifferent to the struggles of others. They express their love for God by caring deeply for His creation. Just as God aligns with and supports the oppressed, spiritual individuals take a stand against injustice and those who perpetuate it. In this way, spirituality and the struggle for socio-political justice are inseparably connected to the message of Liberation Theology. The present article intends to refute the erroneous claim that Christian liberation theology is unrelated to spirituality and faith. The article highlights the intrinsic connection between spirituality and faith within this theological framework and subsequently analyzes the spiritual outcomes it produces. © 2025 by the authors.
Publication Date: 2024
Contemporary Islam (18720218)18(3)pp. 479-499
In this analytical article, we will examine the challenges and pathological problems of living in a Coronavirus-stricken world based on the practical theology foundations of Mulla Sadra (the seventeenth-century Iranian Muslim theosopher). The COVID-19 pandemic has been a potential source of psychological, social, and religious challenges and harms. The synthesis of selfishness and altruism in man is one of the most central pathological issues in everyday life, especially in collective religious rituals during the Coronavirus epidemic. The present study aims to identify these potential challenges and harms and provide a theological solution. The findings show that the two theories of “employment” and “annihilation in the love of people” in Mulla Sadar’s applied theology have the necessary epistemological capacity to resolve some socio-religious challenges caused by the epidemic. In his theological system, love for humans, regardless of race, gender, and religion, is included under love for God. Such a spiritual perspective towards man requires belief in the rights of all human beings and the preference of collective interests over individual ones. In this way, selfishness and self-centeredness, as the moral challenge of living in acute conditions, such as Corona crisis, can be solved by relying on these theological teachings. The study used the descriptive-analytical method, in which we will describe and then analyze in depth the research findings. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2024.
Publication Date: 2023
European Journal of Science and Theology (18410464)19(1)pp. 1-20
This study aims to reveal the capacity of children’s philosophical education in their spiritual development and its efficiency in promoting peace and the denial of religious violence. While analysing the model of philosophical education, this article briefly examines its principles, goals and methods. It then investigates the impact of this educational program on improving children’s peaceful behaviours and enhancing their communicational skills with others in order to reduce violence. Field studies have shown that failure in self-expression, inability to self-control and self-restraint, low level of tolerance, imposition of radical and monopolistic ideas, dogmatism and weakness in reasoning are the most significant causes of religious violence in children. Therefore, one of the essential missions of the educational system should be to create a friendly and safe environment where the grounds and causes of violence are not possible. One of the most significant functions of philosophical education is to strengthen skills such as open-mindedness, critical-reasoning thinking, empathic thought to promote a culture of tolerance and teaching an aesthetic view of existence that leads to the love of God and His creatures. The findings show that the development of these skills through philosophical education can improve their relationships with fellow human beings in an empathetic and rational atmosphere and thus, reduce religious tension and violence. © 2023, Ecozone, OAIMDD. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2022
Religio (12103640)30(2)pp. 91-112
New religious converts experience many ups and downs before and after conversion and acquire a new and alternative understanding of religion and religiosity. The paper seeks to examine their spiritual experiences before and after converting to NSMs and answer this question: what factors and experiences led to the emergence of such a transformation in their religious life? For this purpose, we examined the narratives of people who had converted to NSMs in Iran using narrative interviews and narrative analysis methods. The findings show that such factors and experiences as the imposition of the official and superficial interpretation of religion, the experience of deprivation in one’s personal and social life, distressing experiences of encounters with evil, and the search for meaning all brought about changes in people’s religious loyalties. We also identified the most meaningful aspects of the spiritual transformation of the studied converts to NSMs, these promoting “Autonomous Religiosity” over “Heteronomous Religiosity”. By examining their narratives, we discovered the following coordinates as the most critical manifestations of their spiritual transformation: adherence to beliefs and rituals in early religious life; the reduction of religion to inner spirituality; anti-superficial esotericism; and maximum tolerance in all aspects of religiosity. © 2022 Masarykova Univerzita. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2022
South African Journal of Philosophy (02580136)41(1)pp. 49-60
The purpose of this article is to show the efficiency of “Philosophy for Children” (PFC) in their spiritual development and its impact on promoting peace and coexistence with others, both coreligionists and non-coreligionists. While analysing the concept of spirituality, the article also explores the basics, and the goals and methods of the PFC programme. It then examines the influence of this educational programme on fostering children’s prosocial behaviours and strengthening their communication skills with others to develop peace and denial of violence. The results show that the PFC training model strengthening skills (such as creating an acceptance spirit), enhancing the child’s emotional intelligence and teaching moderation in belief and practice and commitment to rationality and morality of belief, can improve their relations with fellow human beings in a rational space associated with compassion, and as a result, reduce tension and violence. © 2022 South African Journal of Philosophy.
Publication Date: 2021
European Journal of Science and Theology (18410464)17(5)pp. 107-119
According to the atheistic reading of Darwinism, Evolution reveals a world without design and challenges the belief in the Divine Origin and supernatural causes. But it is only by relying on „Ontological Naturalism‟ as a philosophical worldview that one can offer such an atheistic version of Evolution. In this paper, I show by a critical approach that the naturalists‟ reading of Evolution has severe faults and shortcomings due to ontological, epistemological and methodological problems. Therefore, by relying on the atheistic reading of Darwinism, one cannot reject the Intelligent Design of the world and prove the needlessness of creatures from supernatural causes. Research findings show that ontologically, evolutionary naturalists, based on material reductionism, ignore a large part of world phenomena-supernatural identities. Epistemologically, the fact that they consider the theory of evolution to be in conflict with belief in God and supernatural causes is indicative of a „personal ideological decision‟ rather than a „neutral scientific position‟. But methodologically, the natural sciences and „scientific method‟ cannot negatively or positively judge the existence or non-existence of God; because the issue of proving or denying the supernatural goes beyond the expertise of the experiential scientists and their scientific means and methods. Based on these basic deficiencies, ultimately, the naturalists‟ reading of evolution cannot prove that the world is without intelligent design. © 2021, Ecozone, OAIMDD. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2020
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies (02599422)76(1)pp. 1-8
This article aims at showing the potentiality of Transcendent Theosophy (Al-Hikmah Al-Muta’aliyah) in the creation of peace and denial of religious violence. Belief in Necessary Being that is identical to beauty and perfection is one of the central issues in Islamic philosophy, particularly Mulla Sadra’s Transcendent Theosophy. This belief has different stages, the highest one of which is a love-based sense of humbleness before God who is the source of beauty. Thus, faith in the thought of Mulla Sadra is one of the aesthetic categories. Surrender to such a Being leads to love in him and his effects. Thus, in Transcendent Theosophy, love in God is followed by the love in people. This love is associated with the sense of responsibility and the effort for the realisation of people’s rights. In the final part of the article under the title ‘Mulla Sadra and Confrontation of Two Types of Religious Understanding’, through the analysis of Mulla Sadra’s dialogue with a religious radical, we have criticised the discourse of religious violence and concluded that Transcendent Theosophy is a defender of human rights and a pioneer of peace and a despiser of religious violence. The most important finding of this study is that according to Mulla Sadra, religious radical interpretations are the source of the emergence of religious violence, and the solution to this problem is the promotion of rational and conscious religiosity. The method used in this research is of descriptive-analytic type. Contribution: The article brought to fore the potentiality of Islamic philosophy for the realisation of peace and the denial of religious violence. The authors analytically studied Mulla Sadra’s pacifist foundations in order to ascertain its relation with non-violence towards humans. The main contribution of this article is that the teachings of Transcendent Theosophy are very useful for creating peaceful coexistence between human beings. © 2020. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS.
Publication Date: 2019
International Journal of Children's Spirituality (1364436X)24(2)pp. 124-139
This paper aims at showing the efficiency and influence of spiritual education on improvement of communicational behaviour of children with the followers of others religions through presentation of an Islamic model derived from Quran and prophetic tradition. In the first part of the paper, we have provided a conceptual analysis of spirituality along with a short history of the attention to spiritual education of children in the world. Then, we introduce the Islamic model of spirituality and its moral foundations and aspects. In the final part of the paper, we have inferred the key factors of Islamic Model for Children’s Spiritual Education that play a vital role in the reinforcement of communicational skills of the children with the non-coreligionists. The method used in the current research is of descriptive-analytic type. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
