Book Description

"This book articulates a religious rationale for political secularism in the Iranian/shi'i context. The genealogy of Twelver shi'i political theology shows that the bitter experience and lack of success of the shi'ia in the field of governance in the early centuries of Islamic history led them to link the realisation of their ideal political system to transcendental factors. Belief in theocracy has always been the basis of shi'i political theology, but with the messianic conception of the 12th Imām in the fourth/tenth century, its realisation came to depend on the will and intervention of the divine. As a result, shi'i leaders, while awaiting the return of the 12th Imām, not only do not have the authority or responsibility to take over the institution of government, but have been forbidden from doing so. For more than 1300 years, the political thought and action of shi'i religious leaders was shaped by the political theology formulated in this book as Theocratic secularism. In opposition to orthodox shi'i theology, a new politico-religious discourse emerged at the initiative of Ayatollah Khomeini in the last decades of the twentieth century, which in this book is referred to as governmental-shi'ism. In sharp contrast to shi'i orthodoxy, governmental-shi'ism considers the occupation of the government apparatus as the duty of shi'i religious leaders. In this book, it is argued that governmental-shi'ism was neither the product of a theological transformation of shi'i orthodoxy nor used as a blueprint to establish the Islamic Republic. Rather, the formation of the Islamic Republic and the clergy's rise to power led to the birth of governmental-shi'ism and bestowed importance on Khomeini's doctrine of wilāyat-i faqīh"--