ABSTRACT
Various avenues of approach to the study of the relationship of religion and state are open. One is the historical approach, the attempt to trace the interrelations of religion and government as they developed side by side through the ages among all peoples and in all civilizations. Sovereignty in its germinative stage is already present in less complex societies. Religious tradition among primitive peoples stands for the concept and validity of a universal, cosmic, moral, and ritual law upon which depends the welfare, maybe the existence of the group. The governing power is invested with supreme and undivided authority, so that it is meaningless to inquire whether religion dominates the state or is dominated by the state. Although the traditional cults can boast of charismatic religious leaders too, their prophets, revolutionary ideas and activities notwithstanding, tend on the whole to maintain the spirit and oftentimes the forms of tribal or national faith.
