theocracy
/θɪˈɒkrəsi
/noun (plural theocracies)
1A system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god: his ambition is to lead a worldwide theocracy [mass noun]: it is a society just emerging from theocracy...
- Iran has made the transition in the last twenty years from a nominal constitutional monarchy to a democratic theocracy.
- Tibet was a theocracy, ruled by incarnate Buddhas, and, in imitation of China, it had adopted a policy of almost complete exclusion.
- When Aikenhead climbed the scaffold Scotland was not far off being a theocracy in everything but name.
1.1 (the Theocracy) The commonwealth of Israel from the time of Moses until the election of Saul as king.Israel, in the days of the Theocracy, lacked a capital city....
- In the Old Testament God's purpose was fulfilled through Israel and the Theocracy.
Derivatives
theocrat
- Lest there be any remaining doubt about the utter contempt for democracy of the theocrats in opposition to same-sex marriage this latest gesture should put it to rest.
- After all it is hard to make a robust defence of secularism in the face of theocrats when our society allows the promotion of religious ideology to children in state-backed ‘Faith Schools’.
- For the theocrats, ‘family values’ is shorthand for the forced, governmentally sanctioned reassertion of patriarchy.
theocratically
- Taken literally, the authority established by the laws of Moses was theocratic and, if the Book of Judges is to be taken as history, was exercised theocratically for an extended period.
- But, he was a very religious man so everyone had to shut up and let him have a job he was abjectly unqualified for because to do otherwise would be theocratically incorrect.
- There were two ways of consolidating power - militarily and theocratically.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Greek theokratia (see theo-, -cracy).