Reading Foucault’s Political Spirituality through Ali Shariati’s Political Theology

Foucault uses the term “political spirituality” in the concluding lines of the article “What are the Iranians dreaming about?”, published on October 16–22, 1978 in Le Nouvel Obsevateur where he also briefly mentions Ali Shariati and his colossal influence on the intellectual shaping of the 1979 Iranian-Islamic Revolution. Although Foucault does not fail to notice the differences between Shariati’s religious-political thought and Khomeini’s political understanding of Islam, he does not specify to which of these Islamic narratives the term political spirituality refers. Foucault is more focused on the characteristics of Shi’a Islam vis-à-vis other Islamic doctrines—perhaps because of his 1978 lecture series where he delves into European forms of religious counter-conduct and their political implications. However, this strong focus on Shi’ism prevents a deeper exploration of the diverse narratives within the Iranian Shi’a Islam and their influence on the revolutionary movement.

More or less in a similar way, Foucault’s critics read his Iran reports from the perspective of the clergy’s ascension to power. This particular focus on Khomeini’s political Islam has dramatically overshadowed the existence of an opposing interpretation of (Shi’a) Islam and its significance which is Shariati’s political theology. So, while Shariati is customarily referred to as the teacher of the Revolution, the Revolution is scrutinized, quite paradoxically, through Khomeini’s theory of the Guardianship of the Jurist or faqih.

Therefore, although Foucault recognizes Shariati’s political reformulation of Islam as the “inverse and converse” of the idea of Islamic government, he and his critics seem to apply the term “political spirituality” rather indiscriminately for the phenomenon of leaning on religion for political resistance.

This lack of distinction between two fundamentally opposing theories is perhaps best reflected in the open letter to Foucault, written by a Paris-based Iranian woman named Atoussa H. and published in Le Nouvel Observateur following the appearance of “political spirituality” in the above-mentioned article. Atoussa H. highlights those aspects of Islamic governmentality that do not align easily with the idea of spirituality and its mingling with politics. That is to say, Atoussa, like most of Foucault’s critics of his Iranian intervention, has difficulty to associate spirituality with what she perceives as religious fundamentalism. In effect, Atoussa’s main argument underscores the need for a clearer distinction between Islam as corpus juris (or Khomeini’s perception of Islam) and Islam as political spirituality, exemplified in Shariati’s Islam.

In this paper, I argue for reading Foucault’s notion of political spirituality through the lens of Ali Shariati’s re-interpretation of (Shi’a) Islam. Considering Foucault’s engagement with Iranian (Shi’a) Islam—mostly through Corbin and Shariati—prior to his travels to revolutionary Iran, bringing Shariati into conversation with Foucault contributes to a more nuanced understanding of political spirituality. To make this conversation possible, I review key aspects of Shariati’s critical theory, present his complex conception of religion (for which he often uses the term irfān), and briefly introduce his re-depictions of prominent Islamic figures from a political perspective. Then, I read Foucault’s key arguments in his 1977–1978 lectures (Security, Territory, Population) at the College de France in conjunction with Shariati’s radical criticisms of institutionalized religion and what he articulates as “religion versus religion”.