The Relationship between Religion and Politics in the Thought of Religious Intellectuals Before the Islamic Revolution

The relationship between religion and politics has been one of the main criteria and indicators for the division and analysis of intellectual-political currents throughout the contemporary history of Iran. Accordingly, no intellectual and political current will be comprehensible unless it is deciphered from its intellectual context in relation to the relationship between religion and politics. On the other hand, various causes and factors have been effective in the formation of these currents of thought, which include a wide range of factors. The question of the present article is why religious intellectuals in the pre-revolutionary period mainly sought the convergence of religion and politics with the establishment of religious rule. The authors believe that religious intellectuals in this period, not as a belief in religiosity, but in the atmosphere of the intellectual paradigm of that time believed in the link between religion and politics, and this should be distinguished from a belief in religion. In fact, the main reason for this approach of pre-revolutionary intellectuals can be expressed in the intellectual contexts influenced by the political and social environment, and not the deep belief of this current of thought in religion.