Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi'ism

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Mavani
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Twelver Shi'ism

scholarly journals Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-116
Author(s):  
Liyakat Takim
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
State Models ◽  
The One ◽  
Twelver Shi'ism ◽  
Cover Material ◽  
Contemporary Islam

Utilizing a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, Hamid Mavaniexamines the locus of religious authority and its contemporary expression inTwelver Shi‘ism. Starting with the time of the Prophet, he provides a comprehensiveand nuanced analysis of the doctrine of the Imamate and Shi‘i religiousand political authority from traditional, rational, theological, andpolitical perspectives.The first part of the book, comprising three chapters, focuses on the doctrineof the Imamate and contains some of the material that has already beencovered by scholars like Amir Moezzi, Wilferd Madelung, Mousawi, and MariaMassi Dakake. Here, Mavani examines the authority of the Imams and that ofthe jurists during the Twelfth Imam’s occultation. He stresses the Imams’ spiritualand religious-political authority as well as the ensuing doctrines of taqlīdand ijtihād during this period. Citing Shi‘i sacred sources, he provides a Shi‘iself-understanding of the concepts underpinning the Imamate, namely, thoseof wilāyah and walāyah (the Imams’ moral-spiritual authority).Mavani argues, convincingly, that Khomeini’s model of governance(wilāyat al-faqīh) has received a disproportionate amount of attention in recenttimes. His theory was only one among others that have been proposed by suchscholars as Montazeri, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Fadlallah, and Mahdi Shamsal-Din. Other Shi‘i theories of governance have been largely ignored. His discussionand critique of this model is both incisive and erudite, for not only doeshe examine the views of its proponents and opponents, but he also provides adetailed and nuanced discussion of other possible forms of government andthe dangers involved in Iran’s currently centralized form of leadership.The last three chapters cover material that has been largely neglected bywestern scholarship on contemporary Islam. This is where Mavani’s majorcontribution lies: his criticism of traditional ijtihād as being deficient and ineffectiveas regards meeting contemporary challenges (pp. 226-27) and someof the discriminatory rulings that are based upon it, many of which are casuistic,arbitrary, and often based on the principle of secondary rulings.Most works on religious authority in Shi‘ism focus on the authority ofthe Imams and the jurists during the Twelfth Imam’s occultation. Mavani proposesother state models to the one practiced in contemporary Iran ...

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Frazer
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Economic Exchanges

This chapter introduces the concepts and problems of political conduct, political power, statecraft, and resistance that Shakespeare treats in his dramas, discussing how they are put into relationship with other forms and kinds of conduct and power: military distinction, intimate and interpersonal connections, religious authority, economic exchanges and circulations. Diverse meanings of ‘politic’ and associated terms—in particular the question of the extent to which political conduct must be open, and the extent to which it is associated with occult or tricky strategy and secrecy—are also dramatized by Shakespeare. The book’s method—which consists of readings of Shakespeare’s dramas in a way that highlights how political power structures plots, and is articulated in texts—is set out, including discussion of the political theory context for Shakespeare’s dramatic art, and its continuing relevance in political thought.

Rethinking the Restoration: Dissenting cases for conscience, 1667–1672

1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary S. de Krey
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
William Penn ◽  
Ecclesiastical Authority ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Stuart Period ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
John Owen ◽  
Early Restoration ◽  
Intense Debate

ABSTRACTOn what religious and political grounds did restoration nonconformists argue for ‘ease to tender consciences’, and what did they mean by conscience? These questions are central to any evaluation of nonconformist political thought in the early restoration. Such dissenting thinkers as Slingsby Bethel, John Humfrey, Philip Nye, John Owen, William Penn, and Sir Charles Wolseley authored arguments for conscience during the intense debate about the restoration church settlement that occurred between 1667 and 1672. This essay outlines four different cases for conscience to which these arguments contributed. Two of these cases reconciled claims for conscience with the ecclesiastical authority of the monarch. Two other cases for conscience challenged the traditional religious authority of the crown.Should any or all of these arguments for conscience be considered radical arguments? The answer to this question requires a definition of the term ‘radical’ – one that is appropriate for the late Stuart period. The grounds upon which early restoration advocates of conscience accepted an indulgence under the royal prerogative in 1672 are also explained.The essay addresses the historiography of the restoration by considering Christopher Hill's and Richard Ashcraft's views about dissenting thought. It also proposes that the 1667–72 debate about the state and religion raised so many critical issues as to constitute an early restoration crisis about conscience.

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