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Why was religion so important for rulers in the pre-modern world? And how did the world come to be dominated by just a handful of religious traditions, especially Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism? Drawing on sociology and anthropology, as well as a huge range of historical literature from all regions and periods of world history, Alan Strathern sets out a new way of thinking about transformations in the fundamental nature of religion and its interaction with political authority. His analysis distinguishes between two quite different forms of religiosity - immanentism, which focused on worldly assistance, and transcendentalism, which centred on salvation from the human condition - and shows how their interaction shaped the course of history. Taking examples drawn from Ancient Rome to the Incas or nineteenth-century Tahiti, a host of phenomena, including sacred kingship, millenarianism, state-church struggles, reformations, iconoclasm, and, above all, conversion are revealed in a new light

AbstractIn the 1680s, King Narai, ruler of the cosmopolitan kingdom of Ayutthaya, was the subject of competing French and Persian attempts to convert him to monotheism. These attempts were not only embarrassing failures; they also helped to precipitate a coup in 1688, in which Phetracha forcefully intervened to place himself on the throne and eject French influence from the realm. But to what extent did the execution of the coup depend on popular involvement? And what ideals and emotions seem to have animated this participation? After pondering the role of ethnicity and xenophobic sentiment, this article considers the construction of powerful discourses of Buddhist intellectual opposition to Christianity, the role of the sangha in the orchestration of the coup itself, and then considers in more detail the extent to which 'the people' demonstrated some kind of autonomous political agency. Lastly, it considers whether the events of the coup and its immediate aftermath were shaped by anti-Christian emotion. As a movement with conservative and restorative aims, 1688 was not a 'revolution' in the modern sense, but it may have ushered in an enlarged sense of popular investment in the legitimation of royal contenders associated with the defence of Buddhism.

AbstractThis paper explores how Sri Lanka might fit into Victor Lieberman's theory of Eurasian history. Lieberman's work to date has focused on the 'protected rimlands' which he sees as sharing the same historical path from a milieu of warring little kingdoms to increasingly large, solid states. But what happens in a land, such as Sri Lanka, which can be considered 'protected' before 1500, and 'unprotected' thereafter? Political integration and boundaries are first discussed, followed by ethnic and historical awareness before 1500. The third section sketches the chronological development of Buddhism before 1500, while the fourth considers the impact of the European interruption, and the fifth briefly looks at the results for 1600–1800. Along the way, some problems with applying the notion of 'early modernity' to Sri Lanka are disclosed.

Two rulers, one in Africa, one in Asia, are about to undergo the ceremony of baptism following first contact with the Portuguese maritime expansion—but they insist that the rite be conducted in secret. The African ruler is a regional governor (the Mani Soyo) of the Congo King Nzinga Nkuwu who has just converted in 1491. The high king's diplomatic exchanges with the sea captain Diogo Cão had not elicited any real sensation of vulnerability to Portuguese imperial designs, yet he had been happy to convert nonetheless. Now the Mani Soyo is about to follow suit, but he will not have any of his subordinates witnessing the ritual because he does not want them benefiting from the enhanced status and power that the ritual could bestow. In the highlands of Sri Lanka some fifty years later, the King of Kandy is equally intent on keeping his baptismal rites hidden from public view. But his reasons are strikingly different. He does this "lest his people should kill him." When news of the baptism did leak out rioting followed, and the king had to spread the story that it had all been a ploy to deceive the Portuguese.

In the past twenty years or so the history of Sri Lanka has become a site of vibrant controversy, largely because the current ethnic conflict has loaded any kind of reflection on the historical boundaries of political, ethnic or religious identity with an immediate emotional charge. The intellectual reverberations of post-colonialism and the vigorous contributions of anthropologists have added rich strata of theoretical thinking. However, despite one or two calls to the contrary, the periods of Portuguese (1505-1658) and Dutch influence (1658-1796) in the island have tended to moulder on the periphery of these debates. The purpose of this article is to bring some of this thinking to bear on the evidence from the sixteenth century in order to stimulate fresh perspectives on both the events of that time and the models themselves. With the arrival of the Portuguese and their increasing involvement in the affairs of the island during the long reign of Bhuvanekabahu VII (1521-51), the darkness of the Kotte period is suddenly illuminated by wonderfully detailed flashes of events. The flurry of letters written by contemporary Portuguese settlers, officials and missionaries, and the attentions of Portuguese chroniclers such as João de Barros, Diogo do Couto, Gaspar Correia and Fernão de Queirós bring quite new forms of evidence into the historian's purview.

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. This collaborative and interdisciplinary book recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective.

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. This collaborative and interdisciplinary book recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective.Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology

Preface and Acknowledgments -- 1. Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Transcendence and Immanence, by A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern -- 2. Kings Before Kingship: The Politics of the Enchanted Universe, by Marshall Sahlins -- 3. Immanence in the Andes (1000–1700 ce): Divine Kingship, Stranger-Kingship, and Diarchy, by Peter Gose -- 4. Gods and Kings in Ancient Mesopotamia, by Nicole Brisch -- 5. Pharaonic Kingship and Its Biblical Deconstruction, by Jan Assmann -- 6. King, Divinity, and Law in Ancient Greece, by Lynette Mitchell -- 7. Humanizing the Divine and Divinizing the Human in Early China: Comparative Reflections on Ritual, Sacrifice, and Sovereignty, by Michael Puett -- 8. Caliphal Sovereignty or the Immanence of Transcendence, by Aziz Al-Azmeh -- 9. Neoplatonic Kingship in the Islamic World: Akbar's Millennial History, by Jos Gommans and Said Reza Huseini -- 10. Hobbes the Egyptian: The Return to Pharaoh, or the Ancient Roots of Secular Politics, by Robert A. Yelle -- 11. Ancient Apostasy, Modern Drama: Henrik Ibsen's Emperor and Galilean, by Nicole Jerr -- 12. The Last Hindu King: How Nepal Desanctified Its Monarchy, by David N. Gellner -- 13. A Caliphate Beyond Politics: The Sovereignty of ISIS, by Faizal Devji -- 14. Sacred Kingship: A Synthesis, by A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern -- Bibliography -- Index

The peoples of Sri Lanka have participated in far-flung trading networks, religious formations, and Asian and European empires for millennia. This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a 'crossroads', a place defined by its openness to movement across the Indian Ocean. Experts in the history, archaeology, literature and art of the island from c.500 BCE to c.1850 CE use Lankan material to explore a number of pressing scholarly debates. They address these matters from their varied disciplinary perspectives and diverse array of sources, critically assessing concepts such as ethnicity, cosmopolitanism and localisation, and elucidating the subtle ways in which the foreign may be resisted and embraced at the same time. The individual chapters, and the volume as a whole, are a welcome addition to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka, as well as studies of the Indian Ocean region, kingship, colonialism, imperialism, and early modernity

"For the sociologist Robert Bellah, questions about the meaning and responsibility of human beings in the present emerge out of our self-awareness of our responsibilities to one another and the planet. He places religion as the central social institution through which this is understood. At the time of his passing in 2013, Bellah had begun formulating what would have been his next book, a narrative that demonstrated how the axial age (500 - 300 BCE) legacies have been transformed but are still relevant, for better and worse, in the present age. The modern project, he believed, drew upon axial insights to conceive justice and freedom, but the historically unprecedented technological, economic, and demographic expansion of modernity has produced increasing threats to our precarious interdependence with each other and the entire biosphere. In Challenging Modernity the coauthors of the landmark Habits of the Heart bring together the three unpublished essays that would have been the foundation of Bellah's next book. These include lectures from Notre Dame and Harvard that provide a metanarrative of metanarratives, concluding with a a vision of human aspirations in a morally fragmented world. Next is an engagement with Ian Morris's social development index, which quantifies energy consumption and organizational complexity over time and questions how we as a species can adapt to a rate of change that no biological species has ever faced before. Finally, Bellah's Paul Tillich lecture engages the dialectic of the prophetic and sacramental tradition of religion and what they tell us about the needs of societies to function. The book will include an introduction and conclusion as well as additional essays to provide context. In sum, the book challenges us to engage with the big questions that Bellah left for us. Can the universal insights of the Axial Age be reimagined, renewed, and politically enacted in modern institutions? Can we realize universal human rights and responsibilities? Through deliberating and deciding in common, can we pursue social goods diverse and encompassing enough for all of us to share in order to survive and flourish in practice? We will never know for certain what Bellah would have concluded, but in this book we see him trying to think this through"--