Mohsen Kadivar
Visiting Instructor, Department of Religion

Office Location: 224 John Hope Franklin Center, 2204 Erwin Road
Office Phone: 919-681-7447
Email Address: mk153@duke.edu
Web Page: http://www.kadivar.com/index.asp

Teaching (Fall 2009):

• RELIGION 168S.01, Muslim ethics and islamic law Synopsis

  Gray 319, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

• RELIGION 399.02, Special readings

  Divinity 0011, M 10:05 AM-12:00 PM

Teaching (Spring 2010):

• RELIGION 185.02, Ethics/pol n post-rev iran Synopsis

  Gray 228, TuTh 02:50 PM-04:05 PM

• RELIGION 399.05, Islamic phil:proph & revelatio

Highlight:
Born in Iran in 1959, he obtained the certificate of Ijtihad (the highest level in Islamic Studies) from Grand Ayatollah H.A. Montazeri at Qom Seminary in 1997 and his Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy and Theology from Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran in 1999. Kadivar has authored 13 books (in Persian and Arabic) and over 50 articles in Islamic Studies (Philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and political thought). Kadivar's writing on the theology of freedom has been critical of the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Supreme Jurist), an innovation in Shi'te political thought instituted in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. This controversial theory places temporal and spiritual power in the hands of the most qualified religious scholar. Kadivar, together with an increasing number of religious scholars in Iran, have questioned the religious authenticity of this form of autocratic rule. In 1999, Kadivar was convicted by the Special Court for Clergy and sentenced to eighteen months in prison on charges of having spread false information about Iran's "sacred system of the Islamic Republic" and of helping enemies of the Islamic revolution. You can find links to recent interviews and news articles featuring Mohsen Kadivar on the DISC Faculty Experts on Iran page of the DISC website: http://www.jhfc.duke.edu/disc/DISCFacultyExpertsonIran.htm