Theocratic Secularism

Abstract

This book articulates a religious rationale for political secularism in the Iranian/Shīʿī context. The genealogy of Twelver Shīʿī political theology shows that the bitter experience and lack of success of the Shīʿa in governance during the early centuries of Islamic history led them to link the realization of their ideal political system to transcendental factors. Belief in theocracy has been the basis of Shīʿī political theology, but with the messianic conception of the twelfth Imām in the fourth/tenth century, its realization came to depend on divine will and intervention. As a result, Shīʿī leaders, while awaiting the return of the twelfth Imām, not only do not have the authority or responsibility to take over government but have been forbidden to do so. For more than thirteen hundred years, the political thought and action of Shīʿī religious leaders were shaped by the political theology formulated in this book as theocratic secularism. In opposition to orthodox Shīʿī theology, a new politico-religious discourse emerged at the initiative of Ayatollah Khomeini toward the end of the twentieth century, referred to in this book as governmental Shīʿism. Governmental Shīʿism considers the occupation of the government apparatus as the duty of Shīʿī religious leaders. This book argues that governmental Shīʿism was neither the product of a theological transformation of Shīʿī 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 Shīʿism and bestowed importance on Khomeini’s wilāyat-i faqīh doctrine.