In this companion volume to "Deity and Domination," David Nicholls broadens his examination of the relationship between religion and politics. Focusing on the images and concepts of God and the state used in the eighteenth century, he shows how these have been related to political rhetoric in particular cultural contexts. Nicholls argues that the way a community pictures God will inevitably reflect (and also affect) its general understanding of authority, whether it be in state, in family or in other social institutions. Much language about God, for example, has a primarily political reference. In psalms, hymns and sermons God is called king, judge, lord, ruler and to him