Political Theology and Islam

“This monumental work is the fruit of a lifetime of outstanding scholarship on Islam. Paul Heck offers a magisterial overview and vivid interpretation of Islamic political theology from its inception until today.” —Islamochristiana

“Paul L. Heck’s ambitious work provides a stimulating and significant Tocquevillian engagement with the meaning of politics across the entire sweep of Islamic history.” —Journal of Islamic Studies

“Here is the book that will define Islamic political theology for a generation. Expansive and synthetic but also carefully detailed, Political Theology and Islam is sure to open essential conversations not only within Islamic studies but also across traditions and among theorists. Negotiating entanglements of the religious and the secular, the sovereign and the divine, Paul Heck ultimately makes a compelling case for understanding the relationship between ethics and politics in a new way.” —Vincent W. Lloyd, author of Black Dignity

“Ranging widely and deeply across Islamic traditions, Paul Heck demonstrates the plurality and flexibility of political authority in Muslim contexts. From this fascinating book, the reader learns much not only about Islam but about the way power is divinized in supposedly secular societies as well.” —William T. Cavanaugh, author of The Myth of Religious Violence

“This excellent and deeply erudite study offers a sweeping yet layered intellectual history of the conceptual continuities and transformations as well as the political operations of sovereignty in Muslim thought and practice, in both premodern and modern periods.” —SherAli Tareen, author of Defending Muḥammad in Modernity

“Paul Heck has written an important, rich, and magisterial book that explains tension between rulers and religion-based activism in defense of popular rights throughout the history of Islam.” —Abdulkader H. Sinno, author of Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond

Paul L. Heck is professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University and founding director of the Study of Religions Across Civilizations (SORAC) project. He is author of Skepticism in Classical Islam: Moments of Confusion (2013) and Common Ground: Islam, Christianity, and Religious Pluralism (2009).