Tom Wolfe said that a cult is just a religion without political power.
Most religions start as small, sometimes reviled, sometimes persecuted cults.
And at some time in their history these small cults became adopted (or turned into) empires.
Islam becomes its own empire.
Buddhism had Ashoka.
Christianity was adopted by the Roman Empire.
Judaism was never adopted by empire, and I like that: it’s a good sign.
In the mythology of these imperial religions, the subtext is always that the imperial leader saw some truth in the religion, and therefore converted. But more likely is that there is something in these religions that suits empire well. (More on that later.)
So when I hear the phrase “great religions”, I realise that just means populous, and I think it’s more accurate to just call them big religions. Why are they big? Because once adopted by an empire, everyone converts as a matter of loyalty to the emperor.
So as well as being big religions, they are also imperial religions.
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