ABSTRACT
The most graphic picture authors can represent of the total state, to which much appeal, is the image of the 'primitive' social group. It is certainly less clear that the primitive group must correspond with the total state even in respect of the form of rule. For primitive peoples religious, ethical, juristic, political, aesthetic, intellectual and even economic values merge into one another, although the respective spheres often seem to be kept separate in a practical sense. There certainly were high civilisations before Christendom; moreover it may be that certain civilising tasks are clearly more easily introduced when, in the course of development, there has been a loosening of religious and churchly ties. Nevertheless the personal value of Man, independent of state and power, in the Christian experience of faith, the supra-statal and supra-national community relation of Man in the fact of the Christian church itself, have been taken up with a whole-heartedness unattained elsewhere.
