ABSTRACT
Ancient societies were permeated with an intense religiosity that is difficult for the modern mind to grasp. Often historians use “divine kingship” to refer to theocentric polities heavily imbued with religion. Many assume that in ancient times there was a uniting or “fusion” of the religious and political. This is not true. A more accurate view is that in the beginning they formed a unity, not a union, and as time passed, the sacred and secular became separated. In this chapter, I explore some traits of these god-dominated civilizations.
