Why was religion so important for rulers in the pre-modern world? And how did the world come to be dominated by just a handful of religious traditions, especially Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism? Drawing on sociology and anthropology, as well as a huge range of historical literature from all regions and periods of world history, Alan Strathern sets out a new way of thinking about transformations in the fundamental nature of religion and its interaction with political authority. His analysis distinguishes between two quite different forms of religiosity - immanentism, which focused on worldly assistance, and transcendentalism, which centred on salvation from the human condition - and shows how their interaction shaped the course of history. Taking examples drawn from Ancient Rome to the Incas or nineteenth-century Tahiti, a host of phenomena, including sacred kingship, millenarianism, state-church struggles, reformations, iconoclasm, and, above all, conversion are revealed in a new light. INDICE: Introduction; 1. The two forms of religion: being and nothingness; 2. Religion as the fabric of the state; 3. The two forms of sacred kingship: divinization and righteousness; 4. The economy of ritual efficacy and the empirical reception of Christianity; 5. The conversion of kings under the conditions of immanentism: Constantine to Cakobau; 6. Dreams of state: conversion as the making of kings and subjects; Conclusion; Glossary of theoretical terms.
- ISBN: 978-1-108-70195-2
- Editorial: Cambridge University Press
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 404
- Fecha Publicación: 21/03/2019
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés