Initial Conflicts Towards the Separation of Church and State

Response to: Chapter 7, Age of Empires

According to Joannes, political and religious primacy inevitably coincided with each other, and it is clear that the ancient states emerged with both political and religious influence that carried through to the first millennium BC. In more recent history the political and religious aspects of government were separated, thus the concept of government completely diverged from its ancient origins. Joannes marks a major change in ways of dispersing the ideological and political powers, as the transition away from a primarily polytheistic Babylon brought more locally pronounced deities. Joannes describes designated statues and sanctuaries for individual gods to which society must contribute wealth. This separation and individualization of gods also divided the political landscape between kings, which was the first step towards the much later separation of church and state.

Babylon kept their deities unified by holding a divine assembly of statues for the newyear, and it was distressing for Babylonians if their deity was not present for the assembly. All scribes were well read with government contracts, and advanced scribes could copy out religious texts and omens. Such omens and religious signs have a large effect on some political decisions and concerns, such as the need to worry about a statue’s absence from the annual assembly. Conflicting results of omens/symbols or religious practice could prove detrimental to the government system. Royal authorities may send forces to annex areas based on such religious results. Additionally, issues arose when some Assyrians tried to substitute a figure of Ashur for that of Marduk. Also when Babylonia was incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire, the lack of attention to Babylonian deities led to the resurgence of local traditions by Babylonians (such as the re-emergence of the worship of Anu at Uruk).Thus some areas could foster religious views (which affected their political decisions and actions), and these views may have been different from what was centralized. The placement of religion at the same primacy level as politics allowed for much more corruption, as politics was governed by faith. Religious unity is lost, and the resulting conflicts initiated a path towards the recent separation of religion and politics in government rule.