Formulation of the Dimensions of Statehood in the Political Theology of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli: An Analysis Based on Skinner's Hermeneutics

Document Type : Scientific-research

Author

Department of Political Science, Social Sciences Research Institute, Hawza and University Research Institute, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

This article focuses on the dimensions of “statehood” in political theology, centered on four fundamental axes: Islam and state legitimacy, Islam and democracy, Islam and secularism, and Islam and international relations. In Javadi Amoli’s intellectual framework, the Islamic state is not merely an executive institution but a cognitive, ethical, and civilizational structure that emerges in continuity with divine lordship, human vicegerency, and Qur’anic guidance. Its mission is not only administration, but also education, guidance, and the realization of human dignity. Socio‑political circumstances lead Javadi Amoli toward articulating a velayi (guardianship‑based) state, while his conceptual premises connect the state to general human vicegerency and civilizational guidance. Conventional norms regard legitimacy as divine, democracy as consultative, and international relations as justice‑centered. Javadi Amoli, through novel formulations, redefines the juristic domains of authority of the Guardian Jurist as an extension of epistemic Imamate, legitimacy as divine with popular acceptance, democracy as monotheistic and guided, and international relations as grounded in primordial monotheistic nature—while critiquing both Western instrumental reason and traditional absolute guardianship. He argues that the community’s acceptance of the Constitution, together with the leader’s acceptance of the responsibility of Imamate, forms a bilateral and binding covenant—one that constitutes a “valid contract,” a “necessary covenant,” and an “obligatory bond.” This indicates that Javadi Amoli’s political theology of statehood, being problem‑oriented and relatively comprehensive, reconstructs normative foundations and transforms the state into an ethical and civilization‑building institution.

Keywords

References

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