ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the centrality of religion in the development of nationalism. Religious nationalism is what characterized England during the Puritan Revolution in the seventeenth century; it was a translation of Old Testament Israelite nationalism to Tudor and Stuart England. Nationalism, as the main form in which the religious sense of human beings has manifested itself in modern times, is seen by Hayes as a large-scale tribalism, as a doctrine which, although inspired by the Christian religion, owes more to the ideals of the tribe than to the universalistic message of world-wide religions. The role of religious ideology emanating from these 'national' churches, no doubt helped to cement the legitimacy of the early modern European states, and contained as well a number of national themes. In the civil war that followed 'the struggle to defend Protestant orthodoxy made possible the threefold identification of parliament, true religion and national interest'.
