ABSTRACT
This chapter is intended as a series of reflections on Naomi Goldenberg’s powerful and provocative thesis about religions as vestigial states. Specifically, I want to take my cue from her insightful observation that “(T)he terms ‘religion’ and ‘state’ … do not denote a singular or consistent meaning throughout their linguistic or political history” (Goldenberg 2015, 280). I also want to take her up on her invitation to examine the specific “nuances, contradictions and consequences of the discursively positioned distinctness of the two concepts in institutional and cultural spheres” (Goldenberg 2015, 281). I propose to do this by focusing on specific moments in what I call the ‘iconography of modernity’ or the ‘iconography of democracy’.
