African Journal of Political Science

African Journal of Political Science ISSN 3461-2165 Vol. 8 (7), pp. 001-008, July, 2014. © International Scholars Journals

Review 

A philosophical introduction on the relationship between religion and politics

Alireza Sabziyan Mousa Abadi

Department of Political Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza Branch, Shahreza, Iran.

E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: +98 321 3213102. Fax: +98 321 3213102.

Accepted 26 October, 2013

Abstract

Much discussion has been put forth so far by the academics and religious experts regarding the relationship between religion and politics. The result of all these represents a wide spectrum of ideas ranging from absolute lack of relationship to the complete identicality. What is far from clear, however, is the nature of this relationship. An attempt is made in the present article to clear this issue by surveying critically the three existing theories in this regard, that is separation of religion from politics, the complete identicality of the two, and the common boundary between the two, and coming to the conclusion that: (a) the first two theories are almost indefensible that is given the separation of theoretical and practical politics, the relationship between religion and politics becomes of registration type in the field of theoretical politics and of the institutional type in practical politics. (b) despite the third theory, this relationship is of the absolute universal and subaltern type in the field of practical politics and of the relative universal and subaltern type in the field of theoretical politics.