An Historian Approach to Religion (Arnold Toynbee)

An Historian’s Approach to Religion is divided into two parts. The first charts the evolution of religion. From the earliest manifestation in nature worship, Toynbee notes a shift to worshipping local communities represented by the deification of the city-state (like Athens or Sparta).

Eventually this local identity succumbed to worship of ecumenical communities, generally incarnated in a ruler (as the emperors of Rome were deified) before the worship of external deities