Ali Shariati
Ali Shariati
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Introduction
This article compares two influential Muslim discourses of social change
and religion before and after the Iranian revolution of 1979. I argue that
although significantly different in their theological presuppositions, both
Ali Shari`ati and Abdolkarim Soroush have offered social theologies which
justify public religion without legitimizing a theocratic rule based upon
the existing religious institutions. Shari`ati and Soroush illustrate the inadequacies of the secularization thesis with its emphasis on the integrative
function of religion in providing a compensatory equilibrium in an institutionally differentiated modern society (Parsons, 1951). They offer, in
different ways, a theory of contentious public religion in which they link
what religion is (a theological question) with what it does (a sociological
question).
Sociology was conceived in the 19th century as a discipline with a
theory of progress which was unmistakably linked to colonialism and
inherently comparative (Connell, 1997; Seidman, 1994; Callinicos, 1999).
Sociologists constructed a theory of society as a moral science based on
a philosophy of history without references to God. Comte coined the term
sociology to identify a new social science that would replace religion as
the basis for making moral judgments. Not only did the new scientists of
society construct a godless narrative of linear progressive history, by
doing so, they also tendered an enduring theory of secularization. They
proposed that the spread of modernity would inevitably undermine the
potency of religion, both as a system of personal beliefs and as an
institution with authority to shape increasingly differentiated spheres of
politics, economy, and culture. Two distinct universalizing moves made
sociology into both a descriptive science of European societies, as well as
a prescriptive ideology for the colonized world.
First, the new science of society was shaped by and surmounted Christian theology. But in order for sociology to assume a privileged position
of speaking authoritatively about a general theory of progress, a new
universal category of religion had to be invented. The fact that mosques
or Buddhist temples never bore the same kind of social function as the
Christian church remained marginal to the validity of secularization
theory. Second, the distinction between private and public spheres proved
to be one of the most significant foundational binaries of modernity.
According to the theory of secularization, religion, once part of the public
realm, must work its enchantment if at all only in a severely delimited
sphere. It becomes privatized by the means of which a declining number
of people cope with the dislocations and restrictions of public life.
Although sociologists generally disagreed on the social consequences
of differentiation for religion, none envisioned the recent rise of public
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The new paradigm suffers from three distinct problems. First, the utilitarian frame within which these questions are raised does not allow the
proponents of the new paradigm to transcend the functionalist presuppositions of differentiation theory. They remain concerned with the
external manifestations of religion and the rationality of religious organizations. They draw a rigid distinction between the private matters of faith
and public manifestations of religiosity. Their individual actor is also an
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Conclusion
I began this article by emphasizing the increasing significance of religion
in the public sphere. This increase both at the institutional level as well
as personal religious conviction has challenged the main analytic and
ideological premises of the secularization thesis that modernity
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Notes
I would like to thank Professor Sad Arjomand and the anonymous reviewers of
the first draft of the manuscript.
1. This is not to say the mobilizing power of religious institutions and utilizing
religious networks are not discussed in these literatures. There are numerous
examples of such discussions in resource mobilization and political opportunity perspectives in social movement theories.
2. Ann Douglas (1977) described the historical process of the privatization of
religion which took place in the first half of 19th-century America as a process
of feminization. The notion of the feminization of religion does not suggest
that religion opened a realm of influence for women. Quite to the contrary, by
declaring religion private, religious institutions in modern society were able
to maintain their patriarchal hierarchy without public scrutiny. For a critique
of patriarchy in religious institutions see Daly (1985) and Ruether (1983).
3. While Shari`ati was familiar with Sartres existential Marxism, there is no
evidence that he enjoyed the same familiarity with Althussers Gramscian
conception of ideological state apparatus (ISA).
4. Because Farsi pronouns are genderless, in these translations I have employed
the English designation his or her to address the third person singular possessive pronoun.
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