Religion and politics have never been fully separate — every political order has a theology, even if it calls itself secular, and every religious community makes political claims, even if it calls them eternal truths. The question is not whether they mix but how: whether religion is used to sanctify existing power or to challenge it, whether it expands the circle of moral concern or narrows it, whether it provides a vision of the common good or a weapon for communal conflict. From liberation theology to the Islamic concept of shura to the Buddhist vision of the dharma-state to the indigenous understanding of sovereignty as relationship with land, religious traditions have produced both the most inspiring and the most dangerous political visions in human history.
Each step builds on the last.