Reading Foucault’s Political Spirituality through Ali Shariati’s Political Theology

In this paper, I argue for reading Foucault’s notion of political spirituality through the lens of Ali Shariati’s re-interpretation of (Shi’a) Islam. Considering Foucault’s engagement with Iranian (Shi’a) Islam—mostly through Corbin and Shariati—prior to his travels to revolutionary Iran, bringing Shariati into conversation with Foucault contributes to a more nuanced understanding of political spirituality. To make this conversation possible, I review key aspects of Shariati’s critical theory, present his complex conception of religion (for which he often uses the term irfān), and briefly introduce his re-depictions of prominent Islamic figures from a political perspective. Then, I read Foucault’s key arguments in his 1977–1978 lectures (Security, Territory, Population) at the College de France in conjunction with Shariati’s radical criticisms of institutionalized religion and what he articulates as “religion versus religion”.