Aristotle is highly critical of the anthropomorphizing of divinities, pervasive throughout Greek culture. The problem that motivates Segev is this. Consequently, when investigating what Aristotle has to say about these matters in general, it is important to keep distinct his views on the social and political aspects of 'religious affairs' from his philosophical work on divinity or the ultimate principles and causes of the cosmos. In fact, one not entirely misleading account of the birth of philosophy in ancient Greece is that it was constituted in part by the substitution of a critical philosophical or rationalistic theology for the poetic theology of Homer and Hesiod. These practices must be distinguished from the theological reflection underlying them, whether this comes from poets or from philosophers. In a modern secular governmental structure, the concerns of this 'ministry' would overlap to some extent with those of a 'ministry of education'. All of these are civic practices, serving at the very least to instill in members of the political community some sort of esprit de corps. This would include overseeing certain holidays, the construction and care for temples, the provision of priests, and the interface between theological doctrine, on the one hand, and civic and criminal law on the other. Perhaps a contemporary label for such an office would be 'ministry of religious affairs'. What Aristotle talks about is the bureaucratic office of epimeleia for ta hiera, approximately the 'management of holy matters'. Part of the difficulty faced by the author, and acknowledged as such, is that the word 'religion' does not correspond exactly to anything in ancient Greek.

dissertation at Princeton, Mor Segev examines Aristotle's views concerning religion both in the poleis of his own time and in his proposed ideal version. In this concise and focused monograph, developed out of a Ph.D.

Aristotle view on politics