Jafar Morvarid, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Islamic Theology an der Faculty of Theology der Ferdowsi University of Mashhad und Dean of Institute for Intensive Courses and Sabbatical Researches an der Almusataf University of Mashhad, will be at the University of Paderborn on August 3 at 11 AM. The topic of his lecture will be "The role of Seminary schools and Chaplaincy in Iran: spiritual care and Magasedi Ijtihad". The room information will follow soon.
Abstract:
"In the present paper, clerical institution in Iran is described and clericology is descriptively and normatively studied. Understanding the “function of chaplaincy in spiritual care” is bound up with understanding chaplaincy itself in Iran, along with its developments and challenges. To understand chaplaincy in Iran, with a focus on differences between traditional class and middle class of Iranian society, the characteristics of two types of discourse in chaplaincy are stated in line with expectations of these two social classes (i.e. traditional and middle). This distinction in society is correlated with two classes of traditional and modern seminarians. Then, the pathologies in clerical institution are described by pointing to existing statistics. Since the emergence of chaplaincy in Iran is based on the theoretical foundations of Ijtihad, the rectification of current traditional ijtihad leads to the rectification of chaplaincy functions. Finally, desired, appropriate chaplaincy will be able to provide spiritual care to the Iranian middle class, constituting most of the country’s population."