Examining the extra-religious attitude towards religion; Reflections on Dr. Soroush's views

The relationship between religion and politics, which in our time has been reduced to the relationship between Islam and democracy is one of the topics that has been considered by thinkers of religion and politics. This relationship has sometimes been considered from an intra-religious perspective and sometimes it has been looked at outside the religion. In this field, the approach of new theologians to this relationship has been associated with confrontations and conflicts. Among these thinkers is Abdolkarim Soroush, whose views have undergone several developments. According to Soroush, the discussion of Islam and democracy should not take place within the official religion but outside and until this issue is resolved at a very deep theoretical level, it will remain incomplete to show any compatibility or incompatibility between Islam and a democracy based on Islamic law or through the reform of old institutions and traditions. In this article, with a brief analysis of Soroush's idea, we try to answer the basic question of what are the characteristics of the place of religion in politics from an extra-religious perspective by the method of comparative study.