Ma`rifat Kalami

Such subjects as the nature and reality of religious knowledge، the logic and the way to discover and understand it، the criterion and norm of religiousness، its validity and truthfulness and …are discussed in the realm of religious knowledge; in the realm of cognitive value of religious knowledge such issues as realization، narration، the capacity of evaluation، truthfulness، its positive norm and criterion and … are discussed. By the measure of cognitive value in religious knowledge we mean the conformity of religious sciences to reality and innermost of religion، and investigation of the relationship between religious knowledge and fact and immutable essences of religion. Therefore، the main question is that، considering the narrative characteristic of religious sciences about the fact، and the possibility of its conformity to the fact and innermost of religion on the one hand، and the possibility of its error and nonconformity to the fact of religion on the other hand، how much is the conformity of religious sciences to the fact? To answer the question three intellectual trends and approaches have been discussed: excessive trend، defective trend، and a third approach which believes in maximal conformity and is called fallible realism. The present paper، while explaining the viewpoints on the nature of religious knowledge، evaluates and investigates these three trends، using a documentary analysis approach.