Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli is a contemporary thinker who is an expert in various fields of Islamic humanities, especially political theology. Due to his relative comprehensiveness in theology and processing of political theology issues, as well as his entry into theoretical and practical politics as a religious scholar, his scientific personality is worthy of examination and analysis from various dimensions, including influential rival intellectual movements, in order to discover the various dimensions of his political theology. (Objective) Because rival ideas highlight the distinction of the thinker's intellectual system. Accordingly, showing and discovering Javadi Amoli's otherings towards other approaches and the extent of their impact and type of encounter in his view is a research problem (problem) that, in response to the question about the competing intellectual currents influencing Javadi Amoli's political discourse, is based on Skinner's hermeneutics and his concept of mental backgrounds (theoretical framework) and with an analytical-descriptive method (method) on the understanding that six competing knowledge-value currents, including humanism, liberalism, secularism, pluralism, hermeneutics, and the theory of theoretical contraction and expansion of Sharia, as part of mental backgrounds, have influenced Javadi Amoli's political discourse. (hypothesis) Some of the findings of the article about Javadi Amoli's view towards these categories include: extreme humanism in the sense of claiming lordship and the theory of "animalism"; Liberalism means liberalism; secularism means the separation of religion from the world, the separation of religion from social affairs, and the separation of religion from politics; acceptance of salvation pluralism and political pluralism, and rejection of epistemological pluralism in the sense of the simultaneous legitimacy of all religions and schools; rejection of radical philosophical hermeneutics, alignment with classical hermeneutics, and having commonalities with modern hermeneutics; and the need to refine and revive the theory of contraction and expansion due to its many slips. (Findings) Accordingly, analysis and exposure to these schools of thought have played a fundamental role in the formation and development of Javadi Ameli's political discourse, and he has had a critical exposure to the theory of contraction and expansion and then secularism most of all. (Conclusion)
Introduction
Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli is a contemporary thinker who has spoken and commented in many different areas of Islamic humanities, including in the field of political theology, and has diverse and profound works and opinions that are worthy of analysis, review, and criticism in order to advance knowledge, especially in the field of Islamic political knowledge. On the other hand, political theology, which is still immature in terms of knowledge and is in the stages of emergence and development, is one of the main areas of political thought in Islam that covers many fundamental intellectual issues in terms of history and thought. Accordingly, the research has selected Ayatollah Javadi Amoli as one of the greatest active theorists of political theology who has presented important and influential views and has explored the development of his personality and scientific ideas, especially in political theology.
On this basis, the main question is what is the impact of the influential rival intellectual movements on Javadi Amoli's political theology and how is it? The hypothesis, based on Skinner's hermeneutic method and the discussion of his mental backgrounds, is that the seven knowledge-value movements of humanism, liberalism, secularism, pluralism, Marxism, hermeneutics, and the theory of the theoretical acquisition and expansion of Sharia, have influenced Javadi Amoli's political theology as part of his mental backgrounds and have had an important contribution to the development of his thoughts.
1. Research Background
No work has been done on the subject of the research as the influence of competing intellectual currents on the political theology of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli so far, and this research is the first work with this title and content. In terms of Javadi Amoli’s thought, there are some works with the title of his political thought in general. Also, in some works related to the analysis of the political thought of the seminaries or political thought after the revolution, such as some works by Abdolwahab Farati and Yahya Fawzi, some dimensions and objective and environmental contexts of political theology from the perspective of Javadi Amoli’s political thought have been addressed. Among the published works, the following titles can be mentioned: The book A Journey in the Political Thought of Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli (Mansournejad, 2011); thesis: A Study of the Social Theology of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli (Amiri, 2012); The Political Thought of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli (Mojtaba Zadeh, 2010); The Requirements of the Presence of Demonstrative Reason in the Political Knowledge of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli (Alavian and Zare Pour, 2018); The Convergence of Reason and Politics in the Transcendental Wisdom of Javadi Amoli Based on Skinner's Theory of Ideological Hermeneutics (Abbas Tabar, and Zare Pour Naghibi, 2019); A Critical Analysis of the Foundations of the Theory of Freedom in the Perspective of Isaiah Berlin with Emphasis on the Opinions of Allama Javadi Amoli (Nadari, 2011). However, none of these works directly addresses the dependent variable and the influence of opposing ideas, which is the innovation of this research.
3. Theoretical Framework; Skinner's Intentional Hermeneutics
The research uses part of the hermeneutic method of Quentin Skinner (born 1940), which is a moderate method compared to text-centric and context-centric approaches by selecting interventions and manipulations to analyze the problem. The constant variable of this research is that the intellectual, mental, scientific and social environment of the political theorist and his level of familiarity with various sciences are effective in his understanding of political speech and theological interpretation in general. The intellectual foundations of this view can be sought in discussions related to the science of hermeneutics. Various definitions of hermeneutics have been presented (Bolkhari, 1992; Palmer, 1998; Blabashir, 2001; Vaezi, 2004:27). For example, Schleiermacher considered it the art of understanding and believed that the interpretation of a text is constantly at risk of misunderstanding. Therefore, hermeneutics should be employed as a set of methodological rules to eliminate this risk.
Skinner's method can be used both in research on thought in the past and in the present, and on contemporary thinkers or thoughts. In some articles, some topics of Javadi Amoli's thought have been examined based on Skinner's method (Abbas Tabar and Zarepour Naghibi, 2019). Skinner pays attention to two points regarding the understanding of political thought (Skinner, 2014; Javid, 2014): First, what meaning does the thinker have in mind? This is usually possible by studying the author's writings or statements.
4. Conclusion
Competing intellectual currents are considered one of the elements and parts of the topic of mental backgrounds that influence the development of the thinker's thought. This effect is sometimes stronger and more prominent than even the favorable mental backgrounds in the development and crystallization of the thinker's views. In this regard, Javadi Amoli is a comprehensive thinker who actively deals with different levels of competing and opposing thoughts and is up-to-date in their analysis and criticism. There is no topic of thought that he does not have a detailed encounter with. The seven knowledge-value currents of humanism, liberalism, secularism, pluralism, Marxism, hermeneutics, and the theory of the theoretical contraction and expansion of Sharia are the most important competing intellectual currents that are reflected in Javadi Amoli's thoughts and works and have influenced his political discourse.
His highest level of qualitative and quantitative exposure is to the topic of hermeneutics, and of course, below it, to the theory of contraction and expansion; and his lowest exposure is to Marxism. With an analytical-critical attitude, Javadi Amoli recognizes humanism as meaning the originality of man and the orientation of human desires and disregard for the sublime, leading to a bias towards animalism and the needlessness and complete independence of man, both of which he condemns. He also considers liberalism to be an unfortunate incident and an empty mirage. "Separation of religion from social affairs" is his accepted definition of secularism, and he considers the comprehensive boundary of his definitions of it to be the rejection of the religious state. From his perspective, secular state, society, and religion are possible, but science is either atheistic or divine and cannot be secular. Pluralism of salvation, political pluralism, and social pluralism from the perspective of Javadi Amoli is acceptable and emphasized, but he does not consider epistemological pluralism to be correct in any way. In his view, "Marxism" and "humanism" are also considered religions and schools of thought for himself.
Javadi Amoli is flexible in relation to hermeneutics, the author-centered one who does not accept the death of the author, especially in sacred texts. From his point of view, interpretation without preconceptions is not possible, but the text's response is not always the signature of the preconceptions. While he is an advocate of not imposing the opinion of the mind and intellect on a religious text, he considers interpretive operations far from preconceptions to be sterile and impossible, and considers the existence of some preconceptions to be even useful and necessary. He also considers the hypothesis of contraction and expansion to have many slips and emphasizes the need to refine and revive it. He considers a minimal religion incapable of building civilization to be the fruit of the theory of contraction and expansion, and he has a serious criticism of it.