Partial repeat of 8/14/06 post, excerpt from Carroll Quigley's last speech

"The idea of Providential Deity has a number of results.  There is no rule of law, there is only rule of God's will... This is not Western, because the Western idea is that God gives man free will, and if men do evil things, they are responsible.  In Providential Monarchy you get the rule of will.  Their slogan became, 'One God in heaven, one ruler on earth'... There are no constitutional rules of political succession in a Providential Monarchy.  There are no constitutional rules of succession in Islamic Civilization, in Byzantine Civilization, or in Russian Civilization---ever."

This was from one of the last lectures of Quigley, the most influential professor at Georgetown, or anywhere, that I ever had.  Please note though that this was from 1976, so the "no constitutional rules of succession" quote is not universally correct today.  In a De facto sense, one could argue that it is still the true nature of the areas that he singles out, and any real understanding of that fact is a core problem with the goals of American foreign policy over the last 30 years.  That today's "rule of will" is often seen as much about power and wealth as it is about religious beliefs does not change the fundamental bias of centuries of a civilization's culture.