ABSTRACT
Religion has been a powerful bond between the individuals of a community; national unity and solidarity has to a great extent grown out of religious roots, and every national civilization has been moulded by religious forces. The interactions between religion and social forces are complicated, and frequently indirect and unconscious. In ancient times many peoples displayed a close connexion between religion and nationality. A most momentous development towards both nationality and supra-national ideals took place in Judaism. The tendency towards ethical universalism which had arisen in Judaism reached its climax in Christianity, essentially a supranational creed. The fact that the Christian Churches themselves soon showed considerable national diversities was due partly to the influence of pre-Christian civilizations, partly to the circumstances in which the new faith spread and took root. The Roman Church has often been described as the implacable enemy of nationality.
