Alfarabi and the Foundation of Political Theology in Islam

Abstract

Political theology is a field of study initiated in contemporary times by the German philosopher of politics Carl Schmitt in the 1920s.¹ Political theology contends that political concepts and theological concepts are strictly linked and that the concepts of politics are in a sense derived from theology. Very recently, Giovanni Filoramo put the question as follows:

[Political theology] is the historical and political study of the way theological concepts and representations of the divine in a particular religious tradition correspond with the forms and the dynamics of a particular structure of power and political authority. All this has two basic meanings: 1) the way political structures are mirrored in the theological conceptions; 2) and vice versa, the way theological conceptions must be shaped in order to provide proper representations of divinity and sovereignty. The element that mediates between these trends is the religious community which is, at one time, the privileged subject and object of political theology.²

Another possible definition is the following: “two aspects of political theology may be distinguished … one examines the theological implications of politics …; the other the political implications of theology.”³

I am grateful to Charles Butterworth for his useful comments and for his help in improving my English.