DISC Faculty

Mohsen Kadivar
Visiting Research Professor, Department of Religion

Mohsen Kadivar

Office Location: 216 Gray Building, Box 90964
Office Phone: (919) 660-3521
Email Address: mk153@duke.edu
Web Page: http://en.kadivar.com/

Specialties:
Islam
Culture
Religion

Teaching (Spring 2012):

  • RELIGION 185S.03, Religion & politics/post iran Synopsis
    Social sciences 107, TuTh 02:50 PM-04:05 PM
  • RELIGION 399.05, Classical islamic philosophy Synopsis
    Tba, W 01:30 PM-04:00 PM

Recent Publications

  1. M. Kadivar, From Traditional Islam to Islam as an end in itself, Die Welt des Islams, International Journal for the Study of Modern Islam no. 51 (December, 2011), pp. 459-484 .
  2. M. Kadivar, Wilayat al-faqih and Democracy, in Islam, the State and Political Authority, Medieval Issues and Modern Concerns, edited by Asma Afsaruddin (December, 2011), pp. 207-224, Palgrave, Macmilan .

Curriculum Vitae

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