Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari has publicly called for the acceptance of a scientific, critical-historical approach to the study of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. A scientific study of the religious sources, their evolution and redaction, Shabestari suggests, would not harm the appeal of revelation, but to the contrary, strengthen religious belief. The paper examines the secular hermeneutic Shabestari develops in relation to this critical-historical approach and the implications it has for the nature of social order and political power.