ABSTRACT
Let me explain. From the emergence of ancient/early states until the dawn of modernity, the reference to transcendental entities functioned to solve or conceal issues concerning the intrinsic uncertainty of the world. By making ‘being or not being faithful to God’ the ultimate referential point, contingent occurrences were classified into the categories of good and bad events, and were made sense of by attributing their causes to God’s will, approval and anger: good events were the sign of God’s approval and bad events God’s disapproval and anger. Their classification in social discourse was conducted by higher-ranked people such as kings, monarchs and monks as representatives of God’s will, and no one questioned the righteousness of the hierarchical order.
