Sacral Defense of Secularism: The Political Theologies of Soroush, Shabestari, and Kadivar Author(s): Mahmoud Sadri Reviewed work(s):

Source: International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Winter, 2001), pp. 257-270 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20020114 . Accessed: 18/01/2012 23:24
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International

Journal

of Politics,

Culture

and Society,

Vol.

15, No.

2, Winter

2001

(?2001)

Sacral Defense of Secularism: The Political Theologies of Soroush, Shabestari, and Kadivar
Mahmoud Sadri2

This paper discusses three post-revolutionary dissident political theologies in Iran. They all question the absolutist theology of the ruling clerics and utilize sources of scholarship to oppose the clerical hegemony. indigenous They whereas the variable have complementary Soroush highlights emphases: nature of religious knowledge, its limited Shabestari and Kadivar underline nature. They represent the maturing of the dialogue of the and multiple social and political philosophy, Iranian-Islamic and as thought with Western its the coming of age of the indigenous Islamic political theology reclaiming and democratic elements. Together, attack the totalitarian they pluralistic Islam, and call for a guarded and objective secularism, while preserving Islam's spiritual and cultural identity.
KEY WORDS: political theology; Islam; secularism; religion.

CONTINUITIES OF PRE-MODERN AND MODERN POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF IRAN

this essay is devoted to the political theology of the twentieth Although Iwould like to highlight its continuities with traditional Iranian century Iran, thought at the outset. Iran, as I have argued elsewhere, may be political
Imean a la Daniel the so called "objective secularism" Bell, Robert Bellah, xBy "secularism," not the subjective and Peter Berger, in the sense of modern differentiation of institutions, secularism in the sense of cultural and psychological I define the term of religion. decimation as a form of theology political theology, following Leo Strauss's notion of political philosophy, or admissibility that concerns the religious of government. of this term for legitimacy Coining the case of Iran, and maybe for other oriental cultures as well, is useful in view of the fact that Western tomost non is not indigenous philosophical thought in the form of political philosophy, societies and thus political mediation has befallen and religious thinkers. theologians to: Mahmoud should be addressed Texas of Sociology, Sadri, Department 2Correspondence Woman's TX 76204. E-mail: msadri@venus.twu.edu. P.O. Box 425887, Dent?n, University, secular

257
0891-4486/01/1200-0257$19.50/0? 2001Human Sciences Press, Inc.

258 dubbed the cradle Three

Sadri

of theocracy is known as the cradle of just as Greece instances should suffice to indicate the longevity of the democracy.1 Iranian penchant for government by divine approval. First is the mythologi cal notion of ''Fare ye Izadi," (aura of divine approval) germane to the sources that Firdowsy used to compose his "Shahname" (Book of Kings). Second, there is the seventeenth of the Shiite Utopian belief century juxtaposition in the charismatic government of the infallible Imams with the ideology of righteous stewardship of the Saf avid kings, dubbed uZil ol Ilah" (the shadow of God).2 Finally, there exists the concept of clerical oversight in behalf of the absent Imam crystallized in the notion of "Velayat eAmmehr (General thesis of "Velayat eMotlagheh Thus, Ayatolla Khomeini's ye Trusteeship.) mandate of the jurisconsult) that has been enshrined in Faghih" (Absolute Islamic Republic of Iran's constitution, while a theological is not innovation, entirely alien to Iranian political culture. the counterpart of this belief, the burgeoning anti authori However, tarian political of the last two decades, which I will discuss here, theology also taps into Iran's pre modern the Shiite political philosophy, namely, and historically I will con rebellious tendencies.3 traditionally pluralistic, sider three distinct voices in the innovative discourses of secularism in Iran's postrevolutionary political theology.

FIRST:ABDOLKARIM SOROUSH: "LUTHER OF ISLAM"4

Abdolkarim learned Soroush, born in Iran, in 1945, into a traditionally merchant and educated at Alavi high school, (that proved, in hind family incubator of most of the Islamic revolu sight, to have been the intellectual of the University tion's lay elites) and the school of Pharmacology of Tehran, at the dawn of the Islamic Revolution from his post graduate stud emerged ies in England, where he had integrated theories of Quine, Duem, Popper, and others within the framework of his vast Islamic learning. Soroush soon came to be known, first as one of the most prolific and eloquent intellectuals and then as one of the most ebullient and of the nascent Islamic Republic learned critics of the clerical rule in Iran. the best known, and the most prolific Soroush is the most significant, under my review; but for that very reason, of the three political theologians of my recent book on Soroush which includes and in view of the publication an introduction and an interview with him concerning eleven of his essays, will devote less space here to his thought than his intellectual biography,51 would otherwise be the case. the impossibility of doing justice to Soroush's multifari Admitting me outline his major contributions ous project, to three fields: 1) the let

Sacral Defense

of Secularism

259

epistemology and political

and sociology of knowledge; 2) philosophical theory; and 3) ethics and social criticism.

anthropology

1) Soroush's Expansion

and magnum opus, entitled The Theoretical Contraction of knowledge of Sharp a brings his almost encyclopedic philos epistemology, jurisprudence, history of ideas, hermeneutics, to bear on such ques ophy of science, and sociology of knowledge tions as, "to what extent ought we take the edicts deduced by Islamic as literal and immediate divine commandments?" His Juristconsults answer is to separate religion per se from religious knowledge. The as beyond human reach, former, the essence of religion, is perceived is a sincere and eternal and divine. The latter, religious knowledge,

authentic but finite, limited, and fallible form of human knowledge. in their profes The clergy who have dealt with similar quandaries as such. They are, sional circles do not object to these discussions recklessness for exposing the laity however, outraged by Soroush's to such sensitive subjects. Soroush, in his turn, criticizes the practice of protecting humanly formulated knowledge its wider by censoring circulation.6 2) Soroush's political theory starts with a philosophical anthropology human nature. In his rather pessimistic view of human concerning nature Soroush appears to have been influenced by a modern tradi tion that starts with Thomas Hobbes and finds expression in the ideas of the framers of the American constitution.7 That is, human beings are weak and susceptible even pr?dation. As such, to temptation,
they need a vigilant and transparent form of government. However,

Soroush softens the pessimistic edge of this view of human nature with verses from The Quran and the poems of Rumi and Hafez con Soroush believes that cerning the fragility of the human condition. the assumption of innate goodness of mankind, shared by anarchists, and Islamic fundamentalists radical Marxists, alike, underestimates the staying power of social evil, fosters the false hope that it can be and discounts the necessity of a government of checks extinguished, and balances to rein in the weaknesses of human nature. Soroush's political philosophy remains close to the heart of the liberal 3) the basic values of reason, liberty, free tradition, ever championing and democracy. The main challenge is not to establish their dom, value but to promote them as "primary values," as independent of political maxims and religious dogma. In virtues, not handmaidens his essay Reason and Freedom,8 Soroush is at pains to demonstrate that freedom and justice are values in their own rights, regardless of as instruments of attaining other ends. their performance

260 Abdolkarim

Sadri

Soroush is also one of the boldest social critics of Iran. As such, he has not minced words about the postrevolutionary office of the clergy (rouhaniat) within the Islamic tra questionable dition where and have no mediating they perform no sacraments in the relationship between man and God. He has also crit position icized the hegemony of what could be called "clerocracy" and its on the autonomy of academia encroachment in Iran. Soroush sees contemporary Iran as a society in the grip of mas His own encyclopedic is an political theology of this despair from the official Islam advocated expression by the Soroush is the intellectual face of a new revivalism government. in Iran. Its political face can be seen in the sweeping victories of in 1997 and 2001, as well as and the election of the President Khatami new liberal minded parliament (Majles) in 2000. But the significance sive disenchantment. of Soroush's work goes beyond the realpolitik of contemporary Iran. brand of Islamic reformation He belongs to a new and sophisticated that has its origin in the works of the lateMohammad Iqbal. Soroush's of modernization and secu views, informed by Western experience and reform movements larization, and influenced by revolutionary in the Islamic world, are not only illustrative and instructive from an intellectual point of view; they are also capable of revolutionizing Muslim theology and mass religiosity.

SECOND: MOJTAHED SHABESTARI: HARBINGER

OF THE NEW "KALAM"9

Born in Tabriz, in 1936, into a clerical family, Mohammad Mojtahed as a seminarian in Qum. He stayed in the semi Shabestari was educated of years, achieving both degrees of Ijtihad and Doctor nary for seventeen was to become He was invited by Mohammad Beheshti (who Philosophy. one of the main architects of the Islamic revolution of Iran) to take his place as the director of the Islamic center of Hamburg. remained in Shabestari he immersed himself in Germany, from 1970 to 1979. While that position as well as Protestant and Catholic in German Theology.10 Af philosophy ter the revolution he was briefly elected to the first consultative assembly of the Islamic republic, but thereafter he (Majles) after the establishment avoided politics and returned to editing journals, teaching, and writing. At of Tehran. the present time, he is a professor of theology in the University to the introduc contribution Shabestari has made a modest Although tion and application and jurisprudence,11 to traditional Shiite theology of modern hermeneutics of variability of religious and thus to the proposition

Sacral Defense

of Secularism

261

knowledge,

seems to be his authoritative his most significant contribution on the essentially nature of religious knowledge and limited commentary sources. itwith extra-religious rules, and thus the necessity of complementing from the the eternal Shabestari argues that distinguishing (values), in religion needs a kind of knowl changeable (instances and applications) in the rules of jurisprudential adjudication edge that is not, itself, contained as developed in Islamic law (Figh'h). He laments the lack of such a body of in Islamic society:

knowledge

a comprehensive of a systematic philosophy legal philosophy, Today we are deprived to Is it possible and a sound science of economics. of ethics, a political philosophy, in the absence of definitive and eternity of rules and values rule on the universality views of these disciplines?

knowledge

the limited nature of religious In the same vein, Shabestari underscores in particular: in general, and religious jurisprudence,
the tradition, The role of the Quran, (Sonn?t) in economic transactions and politics has been The science of jurisprudence of establishing... not to initiate it. change... and religious jurisprudence (Figh'h) one of organizing not and orienting, to... channel the flow of emerged

He

thus concludes:
We and are permitted, nay obligated to present modern questions to cast a new to the Quran glance at the current and tradition.12 problems of life

In Shabestari's view, what is essential and eternal is the general values of Islam not particular forms of their realization in any given time, (including the time of the prophet).13
The meaning of religion (Ekmal e Din) is not that it contains everything of perfection to find a specific item in it, we could go off under the sun, so that if we were unable as a substitute It is not perfection to function it imperfect. for religion for calling science, technology, and human deliberation."14

Shabestari goes a step farther than any of his clerical colleagues, that there has been a divine decree for a separation of religious secular realities:
God He to remain has accepted for the world itself to let the world be the world.15 has decreed (in the secular sense

suggesting values and

of the term.)

established the foundation of his argument concerning the bound Having aries of religious knowledge, to explore the fit between Shabestari proceeds freedom, democracy, and Islam. Here, Shabestari makes an innovative leap:
I am of the opinion that it is high time that we let people know to what extent they can expect to solve their secular problems an advanced and to establish religion can not be derived The necessity of a democratic from the society... government

262
texts. However, of faith or the religious since social realities demand such a meaning form of government, with this reality, recon people of faith must forge a relationship with its requirements, and follow a faithful life along its riverbed."16 cile themselves

Sadri

In his latest book, "A-Critique of the Official Reading of Religion" pursues his critique of religious absolutism 2000) Shabestari (December, as hermeneutically naive and realistically unworkable. Also, he launches a concept of human rights, although they have not major defense of modern been in religious sources.17 articulated Still, as he told me in an interview in Tehran in January of 2001,18 his from within the Islamic tradition not from with is one undertaken endeavor out. He hopes to transform the nature of religiosity without destroying its essential contours. This reminds one of the profound and far reaching accom

of the Christian theologians with whose works he is intimately plishments familiar. He has chosen the path of soft and learned yet brave persuasion to achieve his goal. and argumentation

THIRD: POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF MOHSEN KADIVAR: THE TWO-EDGED SWORD19

Mohsen Kadivar, born in Fasa in central Iran in 1959, left the university and moved of Shiraz after a brief stint as a student of electrical engineering, to the holy city of Qum to pursue classical clerical learning. He graduated at the top of his cohort and entered the post graduate (dars e kharej) studies of Ijtihad, the highest level of from which he emerged with a "permission" active family. His grandfather Shiite learning. He comes from a politically Reza Shah. was a dissident under Reza Shah, his father, under Mohammad views are less well known to Soroush and Shabestari, Kadivar's Compared less significant. There is a pronounced in theWest but they are by no means between his ideas and those of Soroush and complementarity convergence is his sole reliance on Islamic is distinct about Kadivar and Shabestari. What This sources of scholarship. Even his reliance on Farsi sources is minimal. and his strength.20 at once, his weakness constitutes, four are on political theology. Of Of nine published books of Kadivar, and articles, and the other of essays, addresses, these, one is a collection three comprise a trilogy: The first volume of the trilogy, entitled "The Theo ries of State in the Shiite Jurisprudence" (Nazarrieh haye Doulat dar Figh'h on the de a broad typology of religious opinions e ShVeh) encompasses in Shiite theology. Every sired or permissible single types of government or endorsed the highest is either proposed in this typology instance by Kadivar in Shiite jurisprudence. authorities suggests two reasons for the

Sacral Defense

of Secularism

263

the messianic of Shiite political philosophy: hope for the underdevelopment imminent return of the hidden Imam and the stipulation of infallibility for leaders (twelve Imams) in the traditional Shiite casuistry. He the charismatic discerns four periods in the history of Shiite cogitations concerning political of the private and individual aspects of matters: 1) The era of development of clerics and Figh'h from 11th to 17th centuries; 2) the era of coexistence from 17th to 19th centuries; 3) the era of constitutional government kings, in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries; along with clerical oversight era of the Islamic republic of Iran, from 1965 to the present. The and 4) the most important feature of the first volume of Kadivar's trilogy is a typology sources. in Shiite jurisprudential of the types of government adumbrated it here: Given the significance of this typology I will try to summarize A. Theories
types,

of State Based
order)

on Immediate

Divine

Legitimacy:

(four theocratic

in chronological

1.

Mandate of Jurisconsult" "Appointed Mandate (Shar'iat) Along with the Monarchic in Secular Matters ) (Saltanat E Mashrou'eh

in Religious Matters Potentates of Muslim

Mohammad Proponents: Bagher Majlesi, e Kashfi, Fadl Sheikh ollah Seyed Haeri Yazdi. Abdolkarim 2. "General

Mirza Nouri,

ye Ghomi, Ayatollah

of Jurissonsults" Appointed Mandate Ye Ammeh) (Velayat E Entesabi Ahmad Molla Sheikh Proponents: Naraghi, Hassan Javaher) (Saheb Najafi Ayatollahs Khomeini, Golpayegani, (before the revolution) Mandate Ye Ammeh of the Council

Mohammad Borujerdi,

3.

"General Appointed Immitation'" (Velayat E Entesabi

of the ^Sources of

Proponents: Ayatollahs: Khorram Abadi 4. "Absolute

Ye Shora Ye Marjeyeh Taghlid) Javadi Amoli, Taheri Beheshti,

Mandate Appointed of Jurisconsult" e Entesabi ye Motlaghe ye Faghihan) Velayat Proponent: Ayatollah Khomeini (after revolution) of State Based
order)

B. Theories

on Divine-Popular

Legitimacy:

(fivedemocratic types,

in chronological

5.

"Constitutional Jurisprudents)

State"

(with

the permission

and

supervision

of

264 (Dowlat eMashrouteh ) Sheikh

Sadri

Proponents: Mazandarani, 6. "Popular

Tehrani,

Stewardship

(Khelafat eMardom Proponent: Ayatollah 1. "Elective

Esma'il Mahllati, Ayatollahs: Tabataba'i, Khorasani, Na'ini Along with Clerical Oversight" eMarjaiat) ba Nezarat Mohammad Bagher Sadr

(Velayat Proponent: 8. "Islamic (Dowlat

Limited Mandate of Jurisprudents" e Entekhabi ye Moghayyadeh ye Faghih) Ayatollahs Motahhari, Montazeri

Elective State" e Entekhabi ye Eslami) Proponent: Ayatollah Mohammad

Bagher

Sadr

9.

"Collective (Vekalat

Government by Proxy" e Shakhsiye eMalekan Mosha)" Ayatollah Mehdi Ha'eri Yazdi

Proponent: This

views of grand apolitical typology does not include the completely such as Sheikh Morteza Ansari, Ja'far Kashef ol Gheta', Ayatollahs Sayed Khou'i who opposed any legitimate or clerically legitimized and Abolghasem in the absence of the infallible Imams or on the basis of form of government over mature and sane individuals. The latter, through their clerical mandate and objec negative political theology lend support to the purely democratic in the above tively secular form of government (the last form enumerated Mehdi Yazdi. (Kadivar elaborates on this typology) proposed by Ayatollah view in the second book in his trilogy, under the rubric of "the principle of no-mandate" Asl e Adam e Velayat).21 in the context of the contemporary of this typology The significance cannot be overestimated. The corpus of Shiite Iranian political discourse an obelisk which the ruling clerics present as a monolith, political theology, on which the hieroglyph of absolute mandate of the jurisconsult "Velayat e is etched, turns into a fascinating prism in Kadivar's ye Faghih" Motlaghe adroit hands, reflecting no less than nine distinct possible forms of govern and supported by most revered religious scholars and ment, all proposed texts. Having revealed a menu of authoritative options for Islamic society, thesis. Kadivar launches his criticism of the most absolutist The second volume of the trilogy, is entitled "Hokumat e V?lai" or Gov as the considers ernment by mandate. This 432 page opus which Kadivar heart of his trilogy and the most scholarly book he has written22 comprises " a frontal and unabashed attack on the thesis of the Velayat eMotlagheh ye in the constitu Khomeini and enshrined introduced by Ayatollah Faghih" in two stages. The of Iran. The work unfolds tion of the Islamic Republic

Sacral Defense

of Secularism

265

of the concept of Velayat, which concerns first, lays bare the presuppositions in mysticism the etymology of the term, its interpretation (Irfan), philoso The Qur'an, and Tradition (Sonn?t). phy (Kalam), jurisprudence (Figh'h), In every instance, Kadivar discounts political implications of the term. He traces the first indication of the thesis to the writings of eighteenth and e Karaki, Shahid Thani, and nineteenth century jurists namely, Mohaghegh thus determines the age of the concept as less Ahmad Naraghi. Kadivar, to the age of Shiite than two centuries, a mere blinking of an eye compared But he reserves his most devastating attacks for the sec jurisprudence.23 to the critical analysis of the proofs ond part of the book that is devoted of the principle of government by divine mandate. Here in four sections; following the sources of adjudication in sets up and knocks down the arguments for the Velayat Shiite theology he e Faghih adduced from Quran, Tradition, (Sonn?t) consensus of the Ulama, (Ijma') and reason. (Aghl) He thus concludes: and confirmations Kadivar proceeds
e Faghih neces of Velayat is neither obvious, nor rationally principle intuitively a requirement of religion for denomination sary. It is neither (Din) nor a necessity nor a component It is neither a part of Shiite general principles (Mazhab). (Osoul), of detailed observances It is, by near consensus of Shiite Ulama, (Forou') nothing more than a jurisprudential and its proof is contingent minor hypothesis upon reasons adduced of Quran, Traditions, from the four categories and Reason"24 Consensus, The

Appointment.

of Kadivar's trilogy is entitled: Government by e Entesabi.) It deals with practical consequences, (Hokoumat and disenchantments that the Government based on divine disappointments, mandate has brought about. career we witness not only the voice of a gifted and brave In Kadivar's clergyman, but a tradition of pluralism and debate in Shiite theology that one is allowed, allows such utterances. Once aMojtahed, indeed expected, to contest the opinions of one's colleagues and the received wisdom of one's Indeed, as radical as Kadivar's is, due to predecessors. political theology his status as a Mojtahed with the right to issue verdicts and edicts, he has not been molested for these crucial writings that constitute the most spe cific and explicit refutation of the cornerstone of the theocratic element in Iran's constitution and form of government. Instead, he was arrested, tried, to 18 months because of a sermon in which imprisonment, so called "serial murders" he railed against the of Iranian intellectuals and an interview in which he had alluded that Islamic could be said to Republic have partially reproduced the absolutist authority relations reminiscent of the Monarchic rule.25 The charges, thus, were that he had implicitly impli and sentenced cated comparison the clerical leadership of Iran in authorizing the murders, and that his of the Islamic Republic and the Imperial regime of Iran verged

The

third volume

266 on sedition. Mojtahed

As has

Sadri

But even against these charges Kadivar to adjudicate and to inform:

cited his authority

as a

a student achieved

terrorism

to the explicit of religion, who, according statement of my professors, I have announced the right to express that jurisprudential opinion, text as "gheliah" and "e/ft") is religiously (known in classical prohibited"26

of the Soroush, though this essay is limited to the comparison an intriguing and Kadivar, Iwould be remiss if I failed to mention Shabestari, related line of reasoning in Iran's postrevolutionary political theology. That is the sophisticated, and one might argue, almost sophistic, position of Said Even and Abdollah Nouri who endorse the letter of the principle of Hajjarian it can not be ye Faghih but who argue that "logically" Velayat eMotlagheh an autocratic institution for in that case it would be indistinguishable from tyranny. They suggest the principle can be upheld in literal terms but given a thoroughly democratic interpretation. a sketchy comparison of the abovemen table provides The following tioned theologies:

Primary Soroush Shabestari Kadivar

Discipline

Dialogue Islam-critical

of Influences rationalism

Primary Variable

Contribution nature of

Philosophy Theology Jurisprudence

(British)
Islam-hermencutics (German) Islam-casuistry application of

religious knowledge nature of Limited religious knowledge Plural nature of religious knowledge

CONCLUSION
of the three political theolo The complementarity and convergence in this paper is evident in the above table. Whereas Soroush gies discussed and Shabestari un the variable nature of religious knowledge emphasizes nature substantiates the multiple derlines the limited nature of it, Kadivar the absolutist and to of religious theses. Each in his own way questions and talitarian theology of the ruling clerical elites in the Islamic Republic; sources of scholarship and erudition to oppose the each utilizes indigenous the ma in Iran. Soroush and Shabestari of clerocarcy represent hegemony with Western social and of the dialogue of the Iranian-Islamic thought turing the coming of and theology, while Kadivar represents political philosophy its of indigenous Islamic political theology reclaiming and reinterpreting age elements and relying on the contested nature of and democratic pluralistic it produces. Together, they aim to critique the totalitarian Islam; knowledge

Sacral Defense

of Secularism

267

and thus to usher in a guarded and objective secularism,27 while preserving Islam's spiritual precepts and cultural identity. As I pointed out earlier, people like Shabestari and Soroush are the in of Iranians from the promises tellectual faces of the massive disenchantment and the new reformist Majles of theocracy, while President Khatami repre sent its political face. As we enter a new millennium, the intransigence of the decisive electoral will of the people, the clerical establishment against in the election of Khatami and the new Majles, its crackdown expressed its jailing of journalists and intellectu newspapers, against reform minded tone against democracy and and its increasingly belligerent and bellicose als, and its theological reform is radicalizing the reform movement and politi cal rhetoric. It is a portent of the darkening horizons of peaceful political in an interview remarked that the attempt by Khatami reform that Kadivar to compromise with and to rehabilitate the regime of Velayat e Faghi'h may have reached an impasse.28

ENDNOTES
least this is the way Greek understood the contrast of the two cultures. philosophers See: Mahmoud of the notion of "Fareh ye Izadi" in: Sadri, "The Sociological Implications 5.22. Kiyan, 2. Said Amir Arjomand, The Shadow Imam. of God and the Hidden 3. Hamed Algar, Religion and State in Iran 1785-1906. 4. American as the Journalist Robin Wright and many to Soroush after her have referred of Islam. A designation that indicates, above all, the level of attention Soroush's found in the West. thought has deservedly in Islam: The Essential Writings and Democracy Reason, Freedom, Soroush, of Abdolkarim and with a critical introduction Sadri and translated, annotated, edited, by Mahmoud Ahmad Sadri, 2000: Oxford University Press, New York. See his essay on "What the University In: Freedom, the Hozeh" Reason and Expects from in Islam. Democray no. 10, 51. Part one; Hamilton in: Federalist Papers, Hobbes, Leviathan, In: Freedom, Reason and Democray in Islam. as a "Motekallem," a practitioner a discipline, Shabestari identifies himself of "Kalam," shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that seeks to determine "the relationship be tween the consciousness of divine revelation and the consciousness of human philosophy." Shabestari calls for a renewal oiKalam (Kalam eJadid). Such a discipline would undertake a new assessment of the relationship between the divine and the human. Din va Azadi, p. 64. There is ample with the works in his works evidence that indicates that not only he has come into contact as Paul Tillich and Karl Barth of such contemporary Protestant theologians and Catholic thinkers as Tyrell, but that he has engaged in comparing their contributions and opinions with such Islamic thinkers as Ibn Arabi. Ketab, Va Sonn?t, (Hermeneutic, an essay entitled as well. Reprinted "Christian Theology" in p. 132), He has published Im?n va Azadi, pp. 157-162. For example, he unabashedly of Shiite theology, poses two of the most revered components that is, Ijtihad (religious as instances of the discipline and Tafsir, (exegesis) adjudication) of hermeneutics to "welcome and urges the Islamic seminaries hermeneutics with all their enthusiasm." True to his hermeneutic stance he argues: "It is a power and with utmost Luther 1. At

5.

6. 1. 8. 9.

10.

11.

268
delusion to access mental to believe the Quran

Sadri

such an endeavor... 12.

that one can empty the mind of all assumptions and suppositions and can show an example and tradition directly. Nobody of the success of all commentators have reached conclusions based on their necessary

limitations. (Ibid p. 8, 31,135). Ketab, Va Sonn?t pp. 47, 49, 56, 54, 62). (Hermeneutic, 13. "The status of the Quran and the (prophet and Imam's) is to inspire us as the tradition sources of value not to instruct us as to specific forms and manners eternal of life" (Ibid, that Shabestari p. 90). It is in this context argues that such issues as "Ghesas" (laws per were not legislated by the Quran but simply regulated, and restitution) taining to revenge and rationalized. modified, 14. Ibid. p. 234. This iswhere he comes closest to the theology of Harvey Cox, Niebuhr, Tillich, Im?n and Barth. va Azadi,

15.

p. 67. 16. Ibid, pp. 134,192. A Critique 17. Mohammad 2000, Shabestari, Mojtahed of the Official of Religion, Reading Tarh e No Publications, Tehran, pp. 18, 22-29,199-312. 18. Unpublished interview, January 3, 2001, Tehran. a statement in the "Special Court of the Clergy" Kadivar made 19. In the text of his defense to he poses that symbolizes both the source of his authority and the potential danger to the Mojtahed who rejects the veracity of the the theocratic rule in Iran: "To attribute a basic lack of jurisprudential of the trusteeship of the jurist (Velayat E Faghih) principle a two edged sword, for the accused Mojtahed to pay back has the power p. 231). (Baha ye Azadi, e Velai, has eleven pages of Arabic references and only pivotal book, Hokumat sources to Western references three pages of Farsi references. (for example, Infrequent e Shi'eh, dar Figh'h ha ye Hokumat in his book entitled Nazarihe pp, 45, 113) are to lack of contact with the West may explain the fact that on social translations. Kadivar's even though politically than Soroush and Shabestari, he is conservative issues, he ismore with them. in complete agreement e Vela'i, ch. 7, 8. Hokumat knack is wielding in kind." His most Hassan Hossein Najafi, Seyed Mohammad Seyed Mohammad au and Khomeini, the con camp too is loaded with religious Gholpayegani Boroujerdi, the author of one of the Sheik Ansari, such as the following thorities grand Ayatollahs: Kazem texts of Shiite jurisprudence, most Akhound Molla Mohammad revered advanced and Seyed Abolghasem Khou'i. Seid Mohsen Khonsari, Hakim, Khorasani, Seyed Ahmad in a variety of other arguments in this reiterates the same statement Ibid pp, 237. Kadivar 334. From among those who recognized book: pp. 81, 98,107,232, any kind of trusteeship of the experts' verdict limited such a mandate for jurists, the obvious majority only to the cases of death, (vali ye dam, vali ye ers) juniority, or imbecility of the client, (vali ye seghar, vali ye majnoon) (p. 74). in the Hossein "The religious prohibition of terrorism" was delivered The sermon, entitled: of 1998 and the Interview was granted to "Khordad" of Isfahan, inDecember Abad Mosque as specified a reformist in the in January of 1999. The charges against Kadivar, newspaper, of Iran, and the Islamic Republic court verdict against him were: "1) propaganda against Baha ye Azadi, the public opinion" and disturbing falsehoods p. 121. 2) spreading Ibid. p. 119. to denote institutional and functional secularism" I use the term "objective separation which entails secularism" from "subjective from politics. As such, it is distinct of religion is no evidence the two from culture and mind of the people. There eradication of religion or historically. are linked either analytically of the West has demon Indeed, the experience secularization secularism did not result from the radical objective strated that subjective advocate and Kadivar of Soroush, of the society. Political Theology Shabestari, only the former variety of secularism. for Frankfurter Interview with Christiane 2, 2000. Hoffman, Algemeine, August Baha ye Azadi The Pro camp p. 97. includes:

20.

21. 22. 23.

24.

25.

26. 27.

28.

Sacral Defense

of Secularism

269

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