Spiritual Capital: The Neglected Side of Politics in Islam (April 2025)
Professor Paul Heck of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University will deliver the lecture "Spiritual Capital: The Neglected Side of Politics in Islam." Professor Heck critiques the common way of thinking of politics in Islam in modern categories of governmentality: politics as the control and contestation of institutions of law-making and law-enforcement. He argues that a deeper look at the history of Islam, beyond modern categories, shows another aspect of its politics, which is considered in this lecture in terms of spiritual capital. This concept, which has different sides to it, speaks to the significant role of communities that look to God for guidance apart from governmentality in shaping and ordering society. He will offer several examples of such communities over the history of Islam that were indifferent to worldly power yet were influential in terms of the political organization of their societies. The speaker posits that this side of politics in Islam (the political apart from the governmental), recurring over the history of Islam from its earliest centuries, needs to be taken into account when it comes to the study of religious rule in Islam (al-siyāsa al-shar‘iyya).
This lecture is organized by the AUS Center of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization (CASIC).
About the speaker
Professor Paul L. Heck (PhD, University of Chicago) is a member of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University. His work highlights Islam’s ethical heritage (akhlāq), often overlooked next to its legal heritage. His last book, Political Theology and Islam: From the Birth of Empire to the Modern State (2023), considers politics in Islam in terms of a twofold sovereignty (both divinely ordained governmentality and divinely revealed guidance). His recent articles look at the history of emotions in Islam as a vast but largely neglected part of its ethical heritage.
For more information, contact [email protected].
