Investigating the Effect of the Foundations of Modernity on the Methodology of Understanding the Quran: Mahdi Bazargan & Abd al-Karim Sorush

Studying Christian theology and confrontation of ideas in the West and theorizing about issues such as the nature of revelation, how the Quran was revealed, and the method of understanding it, the new intellectual current tried to create harmony between religion and modernity, which sometimes caused some aspects of religion and the Quran to fade in modernity. Mahdi Bazargan and Abd al-Karim Sorush are among the representatives of this current who, despite the difference in their views, had common foundations in the tendency towards modernity. Examining some foundations of modernity such as liberalism, humanism, secularism, positivism, religious pluralism, rationalism, pragmatism, historicism, and contemporary and philosophical analysis in the thought of these two religious intellectuals, the present article studies the language and method of understanding the Quran. According to the results of the research, although the way these two religious intellectuals deal with the theoretical foundations of modernity has similarities and differences, it has had a similar effect on the roots and context of their theorizing. The methodology of understanding the Quran from the point of view of Mahdi Bazargan can be analyzed in the framework of the simple components of modernism, but Sorush's theological approach goes with postmodern logic and the movement of libertarian theology.