Abdolkarim Soroush: A Neo-Mu'tazilite that Buries Classical Islamic Political Theology

This paper contends that Soroush’s project launches a radically new direc tion in Islamic theology and politics (political theology) that builds on clas sical mysticism and rational theology (of the Mu.tazila).6 This argument will be defended by introducing the studied scholar’s philosophy of religion,7 fol lowing three axes that, first, grasp the comprehensiveness of a world religion like Islam, and, second, clarify the aspects of newness (or modernity) in the project: world, individual, and society axes.8 The first two axes are substantially theological, and the third axis is political. World axis introduces Soroush’s per ception of 1) God, 2) Revelation, and 3) the Prophetic mediation and wording of the Quran, thus the link between what he calls “thick” and “thin” reality (i.e., otherworld, and this-world). Individual axis presents major concepts in his philosophy of religion (like “essentials” and “accidentals,” “minimal” and “maximal” religion, “master” and “slave” values), and the role of reason in the individual’s “experiential religiosity.” The third axis, society axis, which is the most political, condenses his views on “pluralist society,” “positive and negative pluralism,” “this-worldly fiqh,” “objective ethics,” and his concept of “religious democracy” that results from his theological approach. A biographical sketch precedes this work.