Before states were established, as archeological remains say on almost the entire planet, people connected to the spirit existed in communities: witches, shamans, sorcerers, miracle workers… They were respected, they healed, they caused rain, among other things. faculty. They were also feared because they might get sick or cause droughts. His fundamental trait was the power to convince the populace of his ability to perform miracles. When warring nations invade and establish the first states, subjecting the productive population to taxes, charismatic people are persecuted, arrested and killed. But soon many gift bearers made deals with the warriors and showed them that the alliance was mutually beneficial. They said that with their spells they promote the victory of armies, and they invented that kings and nobles get their power from the gods. To this day, we see priests in Russia blessing tanks and airplanes. And at the coronations and weddings of kings, priests are always dressed in military uniform.

Nativity of the Lord: re-encounter with faith

The king-priest combination was common. The monarchs of the Middle East are also religious leaders. But there were always charismatic people who refused to come to terms with the warrior clerical establishment. They are prophets, nabi, those who have contact with the spirit and announce it. The Hebrew case is paradigmatic, none of the prophets of the Old Testament belong to the priestly caste, except Ezekiel. Jewish philosopher Martin Buber says that a prophet seeks truth, while a priest seeks power. The greatest of all nabis, Jesus, was a staunch slanderer of the priestly caste. It was so bad that the leaders of this institution killed him, in agreement with Roman officials and soldiers. A better example is impossible.

Christianity appears as a current that is not tied to Jewish priestly structures, and even less to pagan ones. The first Christians founded a protest movement, persecuted for three centuries, in which three million martyrs were sacrificed. But in the 4th century, Emperor Constantine “nationalized” the Christian church. From this act springs the Roman Church, so connected with the “powers of this world”. But even within Orthodoxy there are movements that want to move away from politicized religion; Franciscanism and other mendicant orders were founded in this spirit. Although it is true, such dissidents were caught by the church authorities in a few decades. Divergents who are slow to adapt to normality are treated as heretics, schismatics or sectarians. The state, the “secular arm”, was involved in his persecution, which actually burned those condemned by the Inquisition. With the anti-clerical revolutions of the last two centuries, the power of the priestly caste begins to decline, but not for the better, as its powers and assets are absorbed by the most powerful caste in history: the bureaucracy, whose omnipresent ability to control far exceeds what priests and popes had in their prime. (OR)