Meaning
The author holds that the constitution should be a human formulation for regulating the social contract, rather than a foundation prior to it. The covenant, however, precedes the constitution and is deeper than it, because it is connected to human values and voluntary commitment.
Structure of the Atom in the Atlas
- Argument type: Distinctive.
- Argument movement: It privileges the covenant over the constitution in terms of origin and value.
- Central terms: covenant, constitution, social contract, voluntary commitment.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
It distinguishes between a human formulation for organizing governance and a prior covenant connected to values and voluntary commitment. This ordering grants ethics priority over legal formulation in founding social life.
Links That Aid Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Religion and Authority
- The Civil State, Religion, and Authority
- the covenant
- Kindness to Parents Is an Innate Value, and Its Punishment Is Subject to the Legal Limits
Evidence
- Supporting text: “It establishes the idea that the constitution should be a human formulation for regulating the social contract, whereas the covenant precedes it and is deeper, being connected to human values and voluntary commitment.”
Location of the Evidence in the Book
- Book: Religion and Authority.
- Location: In the final section of the book.
- Type of evidence: Closely related textual evidence.
- Verification marker: duty and voluntary commitment.
- Reading note: The passage refers to voluntary commitment and rituals as lying outside coercion, which makes it close to this atom.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: Directly documented.
- Meaning of the level: The atom rests on explicit textual evidence close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of interpretation: The wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the evidence is reproduced word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional: it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in developing the idea.
Related To
Note for the Reader
The meaning is grounded in the priority of the covenant, rather than in a merely legal description.