SACRED KINGSHIP

religio-political concept that views a ruler as an incarnation, manifestation, mediator, or agent of the sacred or holy (the transcendent or supernatural realm). Originating in prehistoric times, the concept of sacred kingship has exerted a recognizable influence up to the modern period. Various types of sacred kingship have prevailed in so-called primitive cultures as well as in the ancient Middle and Far East, Hellenistic and European cultures, and in pre-Columbian Meso-America and South America. While important features may be described as common to these traditions of sacred kingship in form, function, and ceremony, each individual variety can be properly understood only in its particular social, historical, and religious context. There are three basic types of sacred kings: (1) the receptacle of supernatural or divine power; (2) the divine or semidivine ruler; and (3) the agent or mediator of the sacred. The first is more common among preliterate societies who view their rulers or chiefs as inheritors of the community's magical power. The ruler's power may be both malevolent and beneficial, and it is believed to be essential in all dimensions of communal life, particularly in agriculture where the ruler's influence over the weather and the land's fertility ensure the harvest necessary for survival. The supernatural powers of the chief may also protect the community from enemies and calamities and so maintain welfare and order. However, in this concept of sacred kingship, the ruler's supernatural power is supported by or identical to his own life-force, which declines over time, and the aging ruler must give way to a younger successor for the good of the community. In other societies, particularly those of ancient China, the Middle East, and South America, the ruler was identified with a particular god or as a god himself. The kings of ancient Egypt and Persia and the ruler of the Hittites were regarded as incarnations of the sun-god; the Egyptian king was also identified with the sky-god, as was the emperor of China. However, the god-king is usually considered an individual deity independent of all others, while another frequent type of divine king is one regarded as the son of a god, an idea found in the cultures of Japan, Peru (Incas), Mesopotamia, and the larger Greco-Roman world, among others. The queen mother may then be referred to as mother of god, though the future sacred king may be adopted, rather than begotten, by the reigning monarch. Finally, a king or ruler may become deified after his death, but this transformation appears more akin to ancestor worship than to sacred kingship in its fullest sense. The third form of sacred kingship is that of the ruler as mediator or executive agent of a god. In this form it is the institution of kingship, more than an individual ruler, that bears the mark of the sacred. The deity remains the true lord, while the king seeks to do the will of this god in the community; the king is the link between god and man, the spiritual and the material. All types of sacred kingship share a number of basic functions that the king must fulfill to varying degrees depending on the society and culture. In preliterate cultures, the king's role as bearer of magical power and his influence over the weather, fertility, and health are stressed, while in many other cultures the king is regarded as the good shepherd who feeds and cares for his flock. Protecting the community from enemies is yet another crucial function of many sacred kings who, as warlords, attempt to use their divine knowledge and power to make strategic decisions and successfully carry out the proper course of action. Religious duties are frequently connected with sacred kingship, and the king may often be a seer or priest as well. This priestly function is particularly important to communities who regard the king as a mediator or divine executive, and his oracles, dreams, or prophecies are believed to hold the divine commands. In many cultures, however, the priestly office and its ritual may be entrusted to a special priestly class, although the sacred king is rarely excluded from it. Because the king is believed to be in contact with the sacred, his judicial authority is generally recognized by the community. The ruler may mediate disputes and protect the individual's rights, establishing laws to ensure a stable balance of power in the community. The king's ability to maintain social order has sometimes been extended to the cosmic order, which is thought to be influenced by the sacred ruler's earthly actions; conversely, the king can be held responsible for disrupting the cosmos and so causing natural calamities and misfortune. Another ritual function of the sacred king is as the centre of a cult. This ruler cult may help a king to unify his people and so consolidate his power; such cults probably arose from political motivations. Ruler cults were known in ancient Egypt and were especially widespread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Among the more important ceremonies of sacred kingship are those involving succession, legitimation, and coronation. A king may be selected on the basis of a number of criteria including birth, adoption, omens, and divination; the new king may take power before or after the death of his predecessor. A new king often legitimates his right to rule by pointing to his selection as king, by possessing such symbols of kingship as the crown and sceptre, and by ascending to the throne. Frequently, the new ruler chooses a royal or throne name and declares a new era. Sacred kings also participate in the religious rites of the community, particularly in the great festivals and cultic dramas, sometimes to atone for the sins of the community but more often to ensure fertility, harmony, and order in society and the cosmos. Although the viability of sacred kingship diminishes in the contemporary, more secular world, its relics remain visible in existing monarchies and various church and state ceremonies. religious and political concept by which a ruler is seen as an incarnation, manifestation, mediator, or agent of the sacred or holy (the transcendent or supernatural realm). The concept originated in prehistoric times, but it continues to exert a recognizable influence in the modern world. At one time, when religion was totally connected with the whole existence of the individual as well as that of the community and when kingdoms were in varying degrees connected with religious powers or religious institutions, there could be no kingdom that was not in some sense sacral. Among the many possible kinds of sacral kingdoms, there was a special type in which the king was regarded and revered as a godthe god-kingdom, a polity of which there were three forms: preliminary, primary, and secondary. The preliminary form exists in cultures in which the chieftain is regarded as divine. The primary form was the god-kingdom of the large empires of the ancient Middle East and East Asia, of ancient Iran, and of pre-Columbian Meso-America and South America. The secondary form occurred in the Persian, Hellenistic (Greco-Roman cultural), and European empires. Between these three forms there are many transitional types. Claus Westermann The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Additional reading James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., 12 vol. (191115, reprinted 1990), also available in an abridged ed., The New Golden Bough (1959, reissued 1972), is the fundamental and classical work. Also significant is A.M. Hocart, Kingship (1927, reprinted 1969), which considers the apotheosis of the king for the oldest religions of humankind. General works are G. van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation (1938, reissued 1986; originally published in German, 1933); and Geo Widengren, Das sakrales Knigtum, in his Religionsphnomenologie (1969), pp. 360393. Also of interest is Lily Ross Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Emperor (1931, reprinted 1981). David Cannadine and Simon Price (eds.), Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies (1987), is a collection of historical and anthropological essays that examines ritual as a form of power and includes studies of several different civilizations.Studies from the English school are S.H. Hooke (ed.), Myth and Ritual: Essays on the Myth and Ritual of the Hebrews in Relation to the Culture Pattern of the Ancient East (1933), The Labyrinth: Further Studies in the Relation Between Myth and Ritual in the Ancient World (1935), and Myth, Ritual, and Kingship: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Kingship in the Ancient Near East and in Israel (1958). Studies from the Scandinavian school are found in Geo Widengren, Sakrales Knigtum im Alten Testament und im Judentum (1955); S. Mowinkel, He That Cometh (1956), pp. 2195; Ivan Engnell, Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East, 2nd ed. (1967); and Aage Bentzen, King and Messiah, 2nd ed. (1970; originally published in German, 1948).Sacred kingship in Egypt is explored in Alexandre Moret, Du Caractre religieux de la royaut pharaonique (1902). Mesopotamia is the focus of Ren Labat, Le Caractre religieux de la royaut assyro-babylonienne (1939); and Thorkild Jacobsen, Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture (1970). Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (1948, reissued 1978), an important exposition on Egypt and Mesopotamia, ushers in the new epoch of research. Discussion of sacred kingship in Canaan can be found in John Gray, Canaanite Kingship in Theory and Practice, Vetus Testamentum, 2:193220 (1952). Works on Africa include Leo Frobenius, Erythra: Lnder und Zeiten des heiligen Knigsmordes (1931); and Diedrich Westermann, Geschichte Afrikas (1952, reissued 1968), pp. 2046. Texts examining sacred kingship in Israel are Jean de Fraine, L'Aspect religieux de la royaut isralite (1954); The Sacral Kingship (1959), papers from the eighth International Congress for the History of Religions; Karl-Heinz Bernhardt, Das Problem der altorientalischen Knigsideologie im Alten Testament (1961); Martin Noth, God, King, and Nation in the Old Testament, in his The Laws in the Pentateuch and Other Studies (1966, reissued 1984; originally published in German, 2nd enlarged ed., 1960), pp. 145178; Aubrey R. Johnson, Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel, 2nd ed. (1967); H.H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel: Its Forms and Meaning (1967, reissued 1976), pp. 186202; J. Alberto Soggin, Das Knigtum in Israel (1967); Baruch Halpern, The Constitution of the Monarchy in Israel (1981), with focus on the political processes by which the monarchy was governed; and Richard Harlin Lowery, The Reforming Kings: Cults and Society in First Temple Judah (1991), which analyzes the complex interaction of economics, politics, and religion in the emergence of the Jerusalem royal cult, and the reform of that cult by Hezekiah, Josiah, and the Deuteronomists.The Roman Catholic papacy represents the single most important attempt at the construction of a sacral monarchy in European civilization. Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250 (1989), includes a good general introduction to the subject, as well as a thorough examination of Innocent III. Paolo Prodi, The Papal Prince: One Body and Two Souls: The Papal Monarchy in Early Modern Europe (1987), examines the interrelation of spiritual and temporal power in the ideology of papal absolutism. Papal claims to sacral kingship faced competition from secular rulers who saw themselves as the heirs of Christ's royal office. J.H. Burns, Lordship, Kingship, and Empire: The Idea of Monarchy, 14001525 (1992), examines the role of Christian theology in the development of monarchical ideology in Europe. Claus Westermann The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica