A Historical Analysis of the Shift from Corporealism to Immaterialism in Islamic Theology

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. Graduate in Philosophy of Religion, Department of Philosophy of Religion, The Imam Khomeini Education & Research Institute, Qom, Iran .

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Studies, Arak University of Technology, Arak, Iran.

Abstract

The question of human nature and the debate between corporealism and immaterialism constitutes one of the most expansive discussions in the history of Islamic thought. Employing the methods of “historical discourse analysis” and “conceptual genealogy,” and drawing upon the theoretical framework of “paradigm shift,” this study examines the evolution of theological psychology across three historical periods. The findings reveal that in the first period, under the dominance of a text-centered paradigm and the autonomy of kalām, monist and materialist dualist theories (corporealism) formed the hard core of theologians’ beliefs. In the second period (7th–11th centuries AH), epistemological anomalies arising from external factors—namely, encounter with Greek philosophy—and the interpenetration of theology and philosophy, while shifting the locus of discussion from “moral obligation” to “resurrection,” paved the way for the gradual infiltration of arguments for immateriality. Finally, in the third period, under the hegemony of transcendent theosophy (ḥikmat al-mutaʿāliya), the immateriality of the soul became an “assumed principle” and the dominant paradigm in later kalām. This article concludes that the transition from corporealism to immaterialism was less the product of mere textual investigation than the outcome of a fundamental shift in the “epistemic order,” the influence of historical-civilizational contexts, and the transfer of authority from the literal text to the demonstrative rational system.

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References

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