ABSTRACT
Militarism and aggressive expansionism have often been associated with what the 'trade' terms 'high' or world religions. These are the religions that have claimed impressive numbers of adherents, and which had –and in many cases still have –an appeal which marks them off from the defunct religions of the past such as, say, Osiran religion in ancient Egypt and Olympian religion in early Greece. Compulsion exhibited by some religions, while ostensibly for spiritual purposes, not infrequently had a covert political function. Movements which try to establish earthly theocracies by force rarely act out of pure motives. In sociological terms, we must distinguish between structure and agency, between the system and its doctrines, and the human agencies by whom this is expressed. Governmental authority which is created in the name of religion has to be exercised arbitrarily by men. There is no form of control more efficient and inexpensive than that exercised by belief.
