The secular governments that exist around the world today are modernized forms of ancient governments. The modern governments are an enforcement of a blend of social and political norms nurtured over centuries from the time of ancient civilization. In the process of the modernization of civilization, societies have developed beliefs, which influence the form of governance. In addition, these beliefs have led to numerous protests against unpopular authorities since the ancient civilization.
Since the government structure was poorly defined in the ancient times, it was always susceptible to the influence of religion. Some of the renowned civilizations of the ancient world that had a substantially document evidence of the influence of religion existed since the dark ages through antiquity to the Middle Ages. These civilizations are the Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and Greece, and some parts of Asia including Iran (Bulliet et al, 2008).
Religion was established before any form of political government in the ancient world. For any government to be formed, the will of the people had to be considered, as they were the major composition of the government. Since people have been considerably involved in some religion or belief in the whole history of human kind, the government had to conform to the people’s beliefs and faiths. Religions formed the fundamental basis for governments.
The inhabitants of the Iranian kingdom used a religion known as Zoroastrianism to portray the conquest of the kingdom by the Romans as the making of evil. This religion associated violence with evil, which helped to uphold peace in the kingdom.
In addition, the expected conformity to the expected conduct by members of the society, which embraced the doctrines of the religion, helped to maintain proper conduct among the citizens of the country. The religion had a basic rule that advocated for the maintenance of social order. Moreover, Zoroastrianism advocated for the abiding of a person by his or her promises or words. Thus, the government was formed based on religion.
To enforce conformity to the will of the government among the citizens of a political authority, the rulers of the ancient world had to be associated with divine power. This was evident in the Middle East where the monarchial rulers were associated with divinity to encourage the royalty of the citizens (Bulliet et al, 2008).
In the ancient Egypt, the emperors of the Egyptian kingdom were considered gods. In this essence, religion was viewed as the enforcer of authority and the government. In addition, a stable government was achievable due to the divine status of the king and his officials. The king was buried together with his servants to serve him in the afterlife. This illustrates the religion’s influence on the government of the Egyptian kingdom.
Furthermore, the king was considered the link between his subjects and their gods. A significant portion of the kingdom’s wealth was used for religious purposes to appease the gods. A cult following of the king kept the monarch enjoying the support of his subjects (Bulliet et al, 2008). The city in which the monarch resided worn acclaim throughout the kingdom once a ruler from that particular city was ordained the king. In this civilization, religion was the basis of one of the most stable governments in the history of humankind.
In the ancient roman world, the government’s foundation was based on the belief that the city of Rome was a divine creation of twin brothers sired by a Roman god. The royal family was considered as a descendant of the initial founders of Rome and the roman state.
In the Bronze Age, a civilization emerged in the island of Crete. The religious orientation of the Minoans, the in habitants of the kingdom, seemed to be primarily the goddesses. The worship of the goddesses unified the Minoan community. The cultic religion of the Minoan people led to the emergence of the Mycenaean civilization. Consequently, the Mycenaean Greece had a cultic religion because of its relation with the earlier Minoan dynasties.
The influence of religion on culture led to the formation of stable governments of that time, which are recognized in modern history as the ancient Greek civilizations. An ancient poet, Homer, depicts the religious nature of the ancient authorities in his works, the lliad, and the odyssey. The story of odyssey narrates the encounters of an adventurous sailor and his seamen. The religious influences of the civilizations that the seamen encounter are illustrated in the epic of homer (Andrea & Overfield, 2011).
In the Shang dynasty of the East, the rich and the aristocratic class were considered part of the gods’ kingdom. The leadership had a close relationship with the gods. In addition, the first monarch of the Shang dynasty was sired through a miracle and was thus a divine entity. The kings were considered to become part of the heavenly beings after their death. Furthermore, the royalty gathered the people’s efforts towards glorifying the gods.
Religious ceremonies involved nobles and other influential people. This devotion to religion kept the aristocratic class and the royalty powerful. Therefore, the leadership was able to command the loyalty of its subjects to a religious scale. In this kingdom, the king was the link between the people and their gods. Furthermore, deceased kings and ancestors were part of the gods’ kingdom.
They often gave advice to the people when called upon. Although the king was regarded as a special religious figure, he sought the advice of the religious authorities on how to seek audience with the divine powers. A scrutiny of this kingdom’s ruling authorities, reveal that it was built on religious beliefs and the unity of the subjects, and the aristocracy depended on their devotion to the cause of the religion.
Buddhism, another religion from southern Asia, had a great influence on the leadership and stability of the ancient Indian states. The Buddhism concept does not fully embrace the concept of the critical significance of supreme deities, but advocates for moderation in all the aspects of life. After the establishment of the religion, various dynasties emerged centuries later with Buddhism as the guiding religion (Andrea & Overfield, 2011).
The ancient religions also caused protests and resistance to aristocracy. The kingdom of Israel suffered protests at around the 900 B.C. The religious authorities regarded the existing form of worship as a creation of the ruling class. The authorities had sought to change the religious beliefs and the existing traditional worship of YHWH, a supreme deity. In addition, the protests led to the emergence of Judaism.
Other protests that were ignited by religion occurred later in the era of Christianity in the 18th century. The protests were against unpopular forms of government that had developed in the modern Europe. The city of London was one of the adversely areas by these protests (Andrea & Overfield, 2011).
Upon the analysis of the accounts of religious influences in the ancient states and kingdoms, one can deduce that a majority of the political consolidations were a result of belief or faith. Most of the observed states maintained religious principles as the guiding principles in governance. However, religions were also responsible the various protests against the extremes of the aristocratic class.
References
Andrea, A. J., & Overfield, J. H. (2011). The human record: sources of global history (7th ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning.
Bulliet, R. W., Crossley, P. K., Headrick, D. R., Hirsch, S. W., Johnson, L. L., & Northrup, D. A. (2008). The earth and its peoples: a global history (7th ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning.