ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the theme of religion in ruins—laid low by politics. Politics—perhaps the "great politics" of Nietzsche—would be the royal carpet of the human prince that rolled itself up with the sovereign's tread and vanished. Politics is the principal and ultimate control system in the realm of the profane, just as religion is in the realm of the sacred. Usurping the vestments of the sacred to dazzle the multitude and prevail over all competing authority has not been an uncommon happening in the profane world. The distinctions between politics and religion, starkly expressed in the concepts sacred and profane, are conceptually quite clear. The case was especially true when the controllers of either the sacred or the profane reformed themselves or were shaken internally. But politics—both because it is "profane" and prone to acts that are morally disreputable—needs a legitimizing source of strength and receives it most powerfully from the symbolism of the sacred.
