In Ali Shariati and the Future of Social Theory: Religion, Revolution and the Role of the Intellectual, Dustin J. Byrd and Seyed Javad Miri bring together a collections of essays by a variety of scholars who explore the lasting influence of the Iranian sociologist and revolutionary, Ali Shariati. Thought to be the most important intellectual behind the Iranian Revolution of 1979, these essays engage in a future-oriented remembrance of Shariati’s life and praxis, with the practical attempt to clarify, expand, and apply his liberational Islamic thought to modern conditions. Making use of Shariati’s writings on Shi’a Islam and western philosophy, this text is especially important for those who want to understand the role that intellectuals, both religious and secular, can have in the liberation of mankind.
Contributors are: Mahdi Ahouie, Bader Mousa al-Saif, Sophia Rose Arjana, M. Kürad Atalar, Dustin J. Byrd, Eric Goodfield, Teo Lee Ken, Georg Leube, Seyed Javad Miri, Carimo Mohomed, Chandra Muzaffar, Khosrow Bagheri Noaparast, Fatemeh Shayan, and Esmaeil Zeiny.
Dustin J. Byrd, Ph.D (2016), Michigan State University, is an Associate Professor of Religion, Philosophy and Arabic at Olivet College. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, and manuscripts, including Islam in a Post-Secular Society: Religion, Secularity, and the Antagonism of Recalcitrant Faith (Brill, 2016).
Seyed Javad Miri, Ph.D (2000), Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, is Professor of Sociology and History of Religions at that Institute in Tehran. He has published more than 50 books and 100 articles on various issues related to philosophy, religion, sociology and Social Theory. His latest book is entitled Reimagining Malcolm X: Street Thinker Versus Homo Academicus (University Press of America, 2016).
Acknowledgements About the Contributors
1 Introduction Dustin J. Byrd and Seyed Javad Miri
2 Shariati, Enlightenment and the Return of the Universal for Comparative Political Thinking Eric Goodfield
3 Ideology by Any Other Name: Social Sciences and the Humanities as Western Catechism Carimo Mohomed
4 Spokesmen of Intellectual Decolonization: Shariati in Dialogue with Alatas Esmaeil Zeiny
5 Ali Shariati’s Critique of Durkheim’s Sociology of Religion Seyed Javad Miri
6 Ali Shariati and Critical Theory: From Black Affirmation to Red Negation Dustin J. Byrd
7 Ali Shariati and Ethical Humanism: Conceiving a Perspective of Liberative Social Ethics Teo Lee Ken
8 The Liberties of a Transmitter: Frantz Fanon According to Shariati Georg Leube
9 Understanding Ali Shariati’s Political Thought Chandra Muzaffar
10 The New Islamism: Remembrance and Liberation Sophia Rose Arjana
11 Ali Shariati on the Question of Palestine: Making a Sacred Symbol for Uprising against Injustice and Domination Mahdi Ahouie
12 Shariati on Islamic and Western Philosophy of Education Khosrow Bagheri Noaparast
13 Ali Shariati and Anti-Americanism in the Persian Gulf Region Fatemeh Shayan
14 We and Shariati M. Kürşad Atalar
15 Musulman-e Marksisti: The Islamic Modernism of Ali Shariati inReligion vs. Religion Bader Mousa Al-Saif
Index
All interested in the history of 20th century Iran, especially the Iranian revolution. Also, those interested in Third World liberation movements and intellectual activism.