The Theological Position of Religious Authority in Shi‘ism: A Review of the Book Entitled “Guardians of Shi‘ism: Sacred Authority and Trans-National Family Networks”

The religious authority in Shiite school is the continuation of imamate in the Occultation Period; and the authoritative jurist takes over, as far as possible, the duties of the Infallible Imam. Thus, studying the status of religious authority in Shi‘ism with merely sociological approach cannot cover all the main foundations of it. In his book entitled Guardians of Shi‘ism: Sacred Authority and Transnational Family Networks, Elvire Corboz adopts a sociological approach and seeks to explain the cross-border leadership of the Shiite clergy and analytically find out the main foundations and various dimensions of religious authority by asking this major question: “How do the Shiite scholars create and preserve their authority in the religious, economic, political and social levels beyond borders?” To achieve an understanding of the concept of ‘top-down authority’, the author introduces three broad fields for understanding this sensitive base: networks, charities, participating in politics. He has attempted to introduce the theory of Wilāyat Faqīh as lacking scientific support in the Shiite sphere and has challenged Imam Khomeini’s authority in the 1340s and 1350s to consider his political theory as lacking scientific authority and delineate it as a rare theory opposing the theories of the well-known authoritative jurists. This article, while presenting a brief description of the content of that book, investigates and reviews its various dimensions.