1. Origins

The tradition of political theology has its deepest Western philosophical roots in Plato (427–347 b.c.) and Aristotle (384–322), who influenced subsequent Stoic thought (e.g., Varro [116–27] and Cicero [106–43]), where the concept is not clearly distinguished from civil religion. Paralleling such philosophical roots, it has its deepest sociohistorical roots in ancient…