Examining the Effect of Modernism on the Establishment of Sociopolitical Order in Imam Khomeini Political Thoughts

Modernism is a type of social life and institution whose primary paradigm is a self-reflective, self-critical wisdom that perpetually evaluates human traditions. This phenomenon originated in the West and spread progressively to other regions. The emergence of this way of thinking in Iran elicited various responses. Some of the intelligentsia attempted to establish a secular and modern order by rejecting traditional and religious values and imitating non-western styles. In contrast, a number of religious intellectuals who flourished primarily in the forties and fifties of the Shamsi calendar opposed this idea and attempted to rely on religious values, correct it with modern ideas compatible with Islam, and prevent the penetration of Western ideas into their culture and civilization. Imam Khomeini, one of the intellectuals of the forties and fifties according to the Shamsi calendar, studied and criticized western humanistic and colonial aspects, while accepting some of its civilizational principles according to Islamic interpretation. Analytical-descriptive methodology is used in this study to examine the effect of Modernism Mindset on Imam Khomeini’s thought, based on three principles of Lacan as a religious intellectual and his desired social-political order. Imam Khomeini's reputation as one of the most influential religious thinkers of the 1940s and 1950s is founded on a critique of the west’s colonial and humanistic aspects. Although he adopts certain intellectual principles of Western civilization in accordance with his religious interpretation, he employs them to create his transcendent sociopolitical order. However, research indicates that Imam Khomeini opposed Shah’s iconoclastic and anti-modern actions, preached the truth, and attempted to reconstruct a political system based on sublime religious values through symbolic action.