Formulating a “Religious Life Research Program” as an Analytical Tool in the Sociology of Religion in Iran

Nazarian, Reza; Nourbakhsh, Younes; Zaeri, Qasem

doi:10.22059/jstmt.2026.412125.1872

Formulating a “Religious Life Research Program” as an Analytical Tool in the Sociology of Religion in Iran

Document Type : Research Article / Original Article

Authors

Reza Nazarian ¹

Younes Nourbakhsh ²

Qasem Zaeri ²

¹ Ph.D. in Cultural Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

² Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Teran. Iran.

10.22059/jstmt.2026.412125.1872

Abstract

The aim of this research is to formulate a new research program in the sociology of religion in Iran. The prevailing literature on religious life, particularly in Durkheim’s work, analyzes the relationship between the profane and the sacra (sacred things) in the form of a duality. This duality has been uncritically accepted in sociological studies of religion in Iran as well. This research expands the duality into a quaternary: nature and the natural, 'Urf (custom) and the Urfi (customary), Sharia (Islamic law) and the Shari’i (Islamic-legal), and Qedasat (sanctity) and the Qodsi (sacred). This expansion aims to provide a more precise tool for explaining religious life or religious disaffiliation (disengagement from religion, particularly from religiosity in Iran: the 'Urfi arises from an understanding of nature, and the Qodsi arises from an understanding of Sharia. In accordance with this shift in the “hard core,” the theoretical apparatus (protective belt) and the methodological rules (heuristic rules) of the Religious Life Research Program are also redefined. Theoretically, the Qodsi is situated within structures of action and legitimacy and is continuously developed according to historical and cultural conditions. Methodologically, understanding the formation of religion in a social context requires a typology of a specific Shari’i structure as a constellation and the identification of types that are far from or close to religious life. The application of this research program to an example from Iranian society demonstrates that, compared to rival programs such as secularization theory, religiosity measures and typologies, or the ethnography of religion, this framework provides a more accurate and realistic explanation of the position of religion within the social structure of Iran.

Keywords

Action, Legitimacy, Religious life research program, Shari’i structures, Sociology of religion, The Qodsi, The Shari’i

Subjects

New ideas for the reconstruction of social sciences based on the sources of Islamic thought

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