ABSTRACT
The place of religion in politics is at once a reflection of the extent of free choice of expression and the matrix around which a national culture and identity develop. Religion has functioned as a mechanism of social control, a rival to the welfare state and a brake to modernization. Many generations ago, religion and politics were inseparable; indeed, the state was, more often than not, a secular manifestation of the dominant faith. Many rulers of antiquity argued that they derived their authority and legitimacy from God, not from the people they ruled, and justified their absolute power on the basis of their divine right to rule. The Jewish nation and, subsequently, the Jewish state, were based on a contract with God, made through Moses, that committed them to obey revealed law; similarly, the Greek state’s security and prosperity depended upon the grace of the various gods.
