The Iranian Revolution, Past and Present: Morteza Motahhari and the Fate of Revolutionary Theology

This talk consists of two parts. In the first, Ata offers an analysis of Morteza Motahhari’s theology. A prominent student of Ayatollah Khomeini, Motahhari is often regarded as the intellectual forefather of the religious ideology that the Islamic Republic adopted in the post-revolutionary period as it consolidated its monopoly over public space. Ata argues that Motahhari’s significance as a thinker, and his success as a theologian, lies in his daring mode of theological argumentation: he treated educated elites from non-clerical backgrounds not merely as consumers of an already-formed theology, but as active interlocutors whose participation helped shape new understandings of religion itself.

In the second part, Ata uses his analysis of Motahhari as a springboard to a broader reflection on the Islamic revolution from its beginnings to where we are now. He starts with reflecting on the ethics and politics of studying, with empathy, a figure so foundational to the regime’s ideology at a moment when that same regime has brutally killed thousands of its own citizens. He argues that, among many other factors, the later leaders’ refusal to engage in the kinds of theological (and political) dialogues that Motahhari pursued with those deemed “other” contributed to the emergence of an unbridgeable gap between large segments of Iranian society, especially educated youth, and the religious ideology that the regime’s leadership presents as central to its identity.