Religious Secularity: A Theological Challenge to the Islamic State

Research output

Complete citation

Poljarevic, Emin. Review of Religious Secularity: A Theological Challenge to the Islamic State, by Naser Ghobadzadeh. Religious Studies Review 42, no. 2 (2016): 127. https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.12479.

Status

Published (2016)

Publication type

Scholarly book review

Overview

This review assesses Naser Ghobadzadeh’s proposal for religious secularity: a theological argument intended to protect religion from state domination rather than to exclude religion from public life. The book challenges projects that identify Islam with the modern state and argues that institutional fusion can subordinate religious ethics to political power. The review examines the proposal’s relationship to post-revolutionary Iranian debates, Shiʿi political theology, and wider questions concerning sovereignty, democracy, and religious authority. It recognises the importance of distinguishing secular governance from secularist ideology while considering whether the book’s normative alternative can address the institutional pressures of contemporary state formation. The review contributes to the study of Islamic political thought by clarifying how theological reasoning can support limits on state power without demanding the privatisation of religion.

Research question or central concern

Can religious secularity protect Islamic ethical and theological integrity from state control while sustaining religion’s legitimate public role?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The review reconstructs Ghobadzadeh’s theological and political argument, tests its institutional implications, and situates it within debates on the Islamic state. Its contribution is to distinguish the limitation of state authority from the marginalisation of religion.

Keywords

religious secularity; Islamic state; political theology; sovereignty; Shiʿi thought; democracy; religious authority; ethics