Reza Davari Ardakani stands as one of the foremost figures in contemporary Iranian philosophy, whose intellectual project engages critically with the intertwined realities of religion, tradition, identity, and modernity. In contrast to the dominant theological traditions of the Islamic world and the analytic philosophy of religion rooted in the Western context, Davari articulates an approach to religion that is historically situated, collectively experienced, and deeply interwoven with the cultural and linguistic foundations of Iranian life. For Davari, religion is not reducible to a corpus of individual beliefs, abstract doctrines, or codified legal norms. Rather, it is a living, historical phenomenon-a shared horizon through which a community sustains collective memory, transmits meaning across generations, and shapes its identity.
The central premise of Davari’s thought in this area is that religion cannot be grasped adequately if divorced from the historical and cultural tradition within which it is embedded. This conviction permeates his critique of what he calls “imported philosophy of religion,” namely, the transplantation of Western, primarily Christian-analytic categories into an Iranian-Islamic intellectual landscape without due regard for its distinctive historical rationality and experiential forms. Such uncritical transfer, Davari argues, yields an abstracted conception of religion-one stripped of its linguistic, poetic, and ritual vitality-thereby severing the connection between religion and its role as a unifying force in collective life.
Methodologically, this study employs the framework of critical social theory to investigate the philosophical underpinnings and implications of Davari’s reading of religion. In doing so, it situates his work within both the broader currents of Islamic philosophy (with explicit debts to al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Suhrawardi) and continental philosophy, particularly Heidegger’s ontological hermeneutics. Al-Farabi’s integration of philosophical rationality with the institutional and symbolic realities of civilizational life provides Davari with a model for understanding religion as a cultural-historical organizer of social life. Heidegger’s attention to the historicity of thought and the centrality of language informs Davari’s emphasis on the experiential and poetic dimensions of religiosity.
The extended analysis reveals several key conceptual distinctions that define Davari’s approach. Foremost among them is the separation between “historical religion” and “abstract religion.” Historical religion refers to religion as lived and enacted-a dense complex of language, ritual, narrative, and collective memory lived out in a historically specific community. Abstract religion, by contrast, emerges when religion is reduced to doctrinal propositions, legal injunctions, or individual mystical experience detached from communal-historical contexts. Davari warns that the dominance of abstract religion undermines the integrative social role of religion, producing atomized believers and weakening cultural cohesion.
Closely related to this is Davari’s nuanced differentiation between religion as a horizon of meaning, shari‘a (its juridical and institutional embodiment), and faith as existential involvement. For him, din functions as the encompassing cultural-linguistic framework within which shari‘a and faith find coherence. Extracting either from this overarching horizon results in conceptual distortions and practical fragmentation.
In addressing modernity, Davari refrains from framing it as an unqualified adversary of tradition. Instead, he conceives modernity as a new historical horizon, one that necessarily enters into tension and dialogue with inherited traditions. His discourse critiques “instrumental rationality” (in the Habermasian sense) for hollowing out meaning and decoupling reason from its cultural and historical embeddedness. At the same time, he calls for a “historically-conscious rationality” that preserves the lived richness of tradition while responding to the demands and crises of the contemporary world.
This article’s contribution lies in systematically charting the intersections of Davari’s thought with the philosophy of religion, particularly in its non-analytic, culturally grounded mode. The findings can be summarized as follows:
1. Historical-Collective Grounding of Religion: Davari foregrounds the historical and communal nature of religion, countering both theological abstraction and purely individualist spiritualities.
2. Critique of Philosophical Imports: He resists the transplantation of Western analytic philosophy of religion without adaptation to the Iranian-Islamic historical rationality, advocating for a “localized” philosophy of religion.
3. Integration of Poetic Language and Religious Life: Davari identifies language, especially in its poetic mode, as a primary medium of religious presence, alongside ritual and narrative.
4. Reassessment of Modernity: Rather than rejecting modernity wholesale, he engages with it philosophically, interrogating its presuppositions and seeking pathways for a creative re-founding of meaning in Iranian life.
The article argues that Davari’s thought opens alternative horizons for the philosophy of religion in Iran, moving beyond both uncritical traditionalism and reductive modernist reinterpretations of religion. His insistence on the primacy of the lived, collective, and historical dimensions of religious life offers a framework capable of engaging with contemporary identity crises, cultural disorientation, and the erosion of shared memory. In this sense, the study concludes, Davari’s work not only enriches Iranian philosophical discourse, but also invites a broader rethinking of the very possibilities and limits of the philosophy of religion when transplanted across civilizational boundaries.