Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Shima Gholamreza Kashi ¹
• Sara Shariati Mazinani ²

¹ PhD Student of Tehran University

² Sociology; Faculty of social science, University of Tehran

Abstract

This study focuses on the relationship between popular religion, and social movements. To answer the question of whether popular religion can be a potential stimulant for changing the status quo or only to maintain it, we focused on the popular religious preachers of the second Pahlavi period. The relationship between their actions and words with the issue of "social justice" has been analyzed. the relationship includes two main currents: In the first approach, social justice is not essentially a central issue, and is marginalized by the issue of "purity and identity." In the second approach, social justice is the spirit of popular religion and the moral basis of its religious community. What is important is that among the popular and prominent preachers, the representatives of that first group were more successful both in terms of the number of representatives and the extent of their social influence. The "identity-oriented" and "pure-minded" approaches were finally able, with the help of "religious sermon" and social activity, to connect to specific social strata among the religious traditional middle class and immigrant residents of poor areas of the city. One feared the loss of "purity" and the other was in the search for "shelter" and both concerned with identity. Although this sermon was not based on political preaching, and its primary concern was not "social justice," it was able to stimulate the masses to join a revolution, to take refuge in a charismatic religious-political leader and to seek in him the lost identity and purity.

Keywords

• Keywords: Identity
• Popular religion
• religious preaching
• Social justice