Imperial cult

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ancient Egyptian pharaohs were worshipped as god-kings.

An imperial cult is a form of

religious significance by his subjects, and serves as both head of state and a deity or head religious figure. This system of government combines theocracy with an absolute monarchy
.

Historical imperial cults

Further information: List of people who have been considered deities

Ancient Egypt

Main article: Pharaoh

The Ancient Egyptian pharaohs were, throughout ancient Egyptian history, believed to be incarnations of the deity Horus; thereby derived by being the son of Osiris, the afterlife deity, and Isis, goddess of marriage.

The Ptolemaic dynasty based its own legitimacy in the eyes of its Greek subjects on their association with, and incorporation into, the imperial cult of Alexander the Great.

Imperial China

See also: Son of Heaven, Chinese sovereign, and Religion in China

In

all under heaven, the bearer of the Mandate of Heaven, his commands considered sacred edicts. A number of legendary figures preceding the proper imperial era of China also hold the honorific title of emperor, such as the Yellow Emperor and the Jade Emperor
.

Ancient Rome

Main article: Roman imperial cult
Roman State. The official offer of cultus to a living emperor acknowledged his office and rule as divinely approved and constitutional: his Principate should therefore demonstrate pious respect for traditional Republican deities and mores .[citation needed
]

Even before the rise of the Caesars, there are traces of a "regal spirituality" in Roman society. In earliest Roman times the king was a spiritual and

plebeian
orders.

King Numitor corresponds to the regal-sacred principle in early Roman history. Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, was heroized into Quirinus, the "undefeated god", with whom the later Caesars identified and of whom they considered themselves incarnations.

Varro
spoke of the initiatory mystery and power of Roman regality (adytum et initia regis), inaccessible to the exoteric communality.

In Plutarch's Phyrro, 19.5, the Greek ambassador declared amid the Roman Senate he felt instead like being in the midst of "a whole assembly of Kings".

As the Roman Empire developed, the Imperial cult gradually developed more formally and constituted the worship of the Roman emperor as a god. This practice began at the start of the Empire under Augustus, and became a prominent element of Roman religion.

The cult spread over the whole Empire within a few decades, more strongly in the east than in the west. Emperor Diocletian further reinforced it when he demanded the proskynesis and adopted the adjective sacrum for all things pertaining to the imperial person.

The

Constantine I started supporting Christianity. However, the concept of the imperial person as "sacred" carried over, in a Christianized form, into the Byzantine Empire
.

Ancient and Imperial Japan

Main article: State Shinto
Emperor Hirohito was the last divine Emperor of Japan.

In

Meiji period and the establishment of the Empire, that the Emperor began to be venerated along with a growing sense of nationalism
.

  • Western World), until the end of World War II
    .
  • Ningen-sengen – the declaration with which the Emperor Shōwa, on New Year's Day 1946, (formally) declined claims of divinity, keeping with traditional family values as expressed in the Shinto religion.

In the 16th, 19th, and 20th centuries, Japanese nationalist philosophers paid special attention to the emperor and believed devotion to him and other political causes that furthered the Japanese state was "the greatest virtue".[1] However, in the 14th century, most religious figures and philosophers in Japan thought that excessive veneration of the state and the emperor would consign one to hell.[1]

Ancient Southeast Asia

Chakravartin (universal monarch). In politics, it is viewed as the divine justification of a king's rule. The concept gained its elaborate manifestations in ancient Java and Cambodia, where monuments such as Prambanan and Angkor Wat were erected to celebrate the king's divine rule on earth.[citation needed
]

In the

Mataram kingdom
.

Timurid and Mughal Empire

Emperor Jahangir, praying to God

The Emperors of the Timurid and Mughal Dynasty were regarded as intermediaries of their subordinaries and God by virtue of the blessings of the Hazrat Ishaans, who were the spiritual guides of the Timurid and Mughal Emperors. The Emperors believed in the Hazrat Ishaans to be the rightful spiritual successors of Muhammad and by this virtue to be the ultimate intermediaries between God and mankind in every time (Qutb). They thus used the title Zwillu-Nabi’llah (ظِلُّ النبی ٱلله) or "Sayeh Nabi-e- Khuda" in Persian which means "Shadow of God´s Prophet" in English to denote their representation of God on Earth.[4][5][6]

Examples of divine kings in history

See also: Sacred king
Hong Xiuquan

Some examples of historic leaders who are often considered divine kings are:

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1838862145
    .
  2. ISBN 8189233262. Archived from the original
    on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  3. ^ Drs. R. Soekmono (1988) [1973]. Pengantar Sejarah Kebudayaan Indonesia 2, 2nd ed (5th reprint ed.). Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kanisius. p. 83.
  4. JSTOR 44147955
    – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ "Power & Desire".
  6. ^ "Main Elements and Structure of the Mughal Administration". 29 November 2014.
  7. ^ Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 183.
  8. ^ Wilfred Byford-Jones, Four Faces of Peru, Roy Publishers, 1967, pp. 17, 50.

References

Further reading
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