26 October 2010

Not just a religion

To say a religion has obligatory force is to say it taps into political power. If a religion is only voluntary, it might have economic import but it has difficulty speaking to the matter of political authority. It cannot command. 
The moment a religion takes on political power it ceases to be just a religion and it becomes the cultural understructure of the political/economic institutions of the polity. 
Power alters the meaning of social relations. 
Civil society under national authority exercises power naturally. 

No comments:

Post a Comment