My paper will explore the transformation of the concept of velayat-e faqih from the early days of the revolution to the modern concept of valiye faqihe Mutlaq. This paper will compare the development of political Shi’ism to the transformation in the thought of Religious Zionist legal theology. It will compare the thought of Iranian revolutionaries with the philosophies of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) and his son Zvi Yehuda Kook (1891-1982). It will pay careful attention to the nexus between mysticism, law and state power. It will elaborate on how a charismatically constructed public sphere is either able or unable to embrace or sublimate, alternative epistemologies that displace the mysticism from the law.
Religious Studies/Theology
None