A Study of Approaches to Relation of Religion and Modernity during Iran’s Constitutional Era

The issue of the relation between tradition and modernity has been one of the major offspring of the Constitutional era in Iran. Modernity may be said to consist of two elements. One is “modernization” that is the total political, social, scientific and technological changes which have emerged in the West and resulted in the industrial development and political power of the Western countries. The other one is “modernism” which may be said to mean an endeavor in quest of the truth in order to free human beings from trusteeship on the one hand and act to determine the limits of reason in understanding on the other. Religion is one of the most important elements of tradition. Considering this, the present article seeks to study the opinion of religious scholars and intellectuals of the constitutional era about the relation between tradition and modernity. In this regard, some scholars believe in the contradiction between tradition and modernity while defending modernity. Some believe the same but considering the nature of modernity irrespective of modernization. Finally some scholars argue for the possibility of integrating modernity and tradition and believe that the former is included in Islam.