| title: | Religion in Ancient and Medieval Totalitarian States |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF5374 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| subject: |
6. Humanities |
| status: | completed |
| institution: | TU Faculty of Theology |
| head of project: | Tarmo Kulmar |
| duration: | 01.01.2003 - 31.12.2005 |
| description: | This grant project is intended as a continuation of the soon-to-end Grant No. 4893 of the Estonian Science Foundation. The primary directions of research are as follows: (a) finding other precedents for totalitarian states from ancient and medieval times, and (b) determining the importance of religion in totalitarian states, particularly in those of ancient times. Based on these primary directions of research, the project has two objectives: (a) deepening the research field (the importance and meaning of religion in the different areas of political and social life of the Incan state), (b) widening the research field (studying the cases of other ancient totalitarian states (the Qin state of China, Ancient Sparta) and comparing the new data with those on the Incan state). The working hypotheses are as follows: (1) The worship of the sun and the Emperor as the state ideology had a positive effect on the system of government of the Incan state; in the final stages of the state, however, it turned into a destabilizing factor. The religious policy of the Incan state is at variance with the normal practice of totalitarian states; rather, it resembles that of the Roman Empire. (2) The Qin Empire of China fully matches the criteria for a totalitarian state. The faxia doctrine functioned as the official ideology there, essentially assuming the proportions of a religion. Other religions and philosophies, including Confucianism, were disapproved. (3) Ancient Sparta conforms fairly closely to the characteristics of a totalitarian state yet also displays many dissimilarities. The influence of religion on the different aspects of political and social life was smaller in it than in the Incan state but greater than in the Qin state. The research will be theoretical and based on work with written historical sources. The project will be centered on the Peruvian material, which constitutes the bulkiest part and is best studied by the applicant. It must be further improved on, however, and analyzed from aspects thus far unresearched. At the same time, it is necessary to start gathering Chinese and Greek material and compare it, in the final phase of the project, with the Peruvian material. In addition, the author needs to continue his search of history for other precedents for the totalitarian states. To publicize the research results, a number of foreign-language articles will be written and published; parallelly, these will also be printed in Estonian. The results will be presented as reports at international conferences. |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Tarmo Kulmar | TU Faculty of Theology | Professor of Comparative Religion | |