Reconstruction of Religious Thought and its Impact on the Shiite Political Discourse in Contemporary Iran (with Special focus on the Thoughts of the Late Ayatullah Mutahhari)

The reconstruction of religious thought is considered one of the essential components of the politico-religious discourse in contemporary Iran towards the revival of religious thought and making religion more efficient. This reconstruction has involved such goals as universality of religious thought towards playing a superior socio-political role, adapting it to the temporal requirements and benefitting from religious potentials towards resisting against domestic despotism and foreign domination. The historical background of this process and understanding its Islamist discourse involve the hard task of identification and evaluation in a world in which we not only witness the opposition of religious and antireligious thought, but we see that the religious thought itself has undergone extensive developments and interpretations. The wide range of this reconstruction among the Shiite scholars of Iran is a turning point in intellectual and practical developments in the history of contemporary Iran. Explaining this issue and its impact on the Shiite political discourse in contemporary Iran, this article seeks to elaborate on religious reconstruction from the perspective of Ayatuulah Murtaza Mutahhari.

Keywords:

religious thought , contemporary Iran , political discourse , Shiite school , Ayatullah Murtaza Mutahhari