1980/01/01 by Saïd Amir Arjomand · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Religion and Society Interactions #Islamic Studies and History #American Constitutional Law and Politics
paper · doi:10.1080/00210868008701568
openalex publication_date 1980/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
The Iraqi invasion of southwestern Iran on September 22, 1980, appears to have halted, though not reversed, one of the most intriguing experiments in modern history: Khomeini's attempt to create a Shi'ite theocracy in which the state is totally subordinated to the clergy and its powers are drastically circumscribed. What follows is an analysis of the theoretical foundations of this attempt, and of the way it has been carried out in practice. In the chapter of Economy and Society devoted to the analysis of the church-state problem, Weber states: Whenever hierocratic charisma is stronger than political authority it seeks to degrade it, if it does not appropriate it outright. Since political power claims a competing charisma of its own, it may be made to appear as the work of Satan. The precondition for the strength of hierocratic charisma is its autonomy, an autonomy which the world religions of salvation grant in principle but which does not always find adequate institutional translation.