As there are no natural compatibility between philosophical foundations of modernity and the discourse of tradition and oriental philosophy, the entry of modernity to other societies, especially the Islamic countries, has led to fundamental contradictions. Such issue being accompanied with colonialism at the beginning, and non-development of eastern societies later on which resulted in continuation of their subordination and backwardness, was faced with resistance by the elites and people of these societies which led to fundamental evolutions and formation of new social forces. In Iran, especially after the Constitutional Revolution in 1906, we see at least two different kind of encountering with modernity. The intellectuals generally sought to accept the modernity but the religious thinkers usually opposed it. In opposing the modernity, however, the religious thinkers were divided into three groups, namely, the theology-centered, justice- centered and modernist-centered. This article will review the process of the rise of religious modernism and its encountering with the modernity after the Constitutional Revolution that, in its turn, initiated the emergence of fundamental conflicts and new social cleavages in Iran. This still is one of the fundamental issues of the Iranian society.
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