Theokratie und theokratischer Diskurs

The authors study the relationship between religion and politics in various cultures and eras as exemplified by an extreme case: theocracy, the concept of a reign of God on earth. This concept belongs to the tradition of the three major monotheistic religions. Its persuasive power however is subject to the cycles of history, in which phases of recovery and slump, escalation and de-escalation alternate. Since theocracy is a deep-seated religious tradition, it can always be reasserted in identity crises. In the articles which deal with the historical situations of pharaonic Egypt and biblical Egypt up to the present time, the authors study the conditions under which the theocratic argument falls on fertile soil, the protagonists or status groups who use the theocratic argument and the political and social effects which are connected to each of these.