I think you're reversing cause & effect. Something plain & essential was overpowered by human nature, just as it has been since the fall. Empire swallowed the Church & the Church allowed it to happen, because it fits within man's comfort zone.
The Jews felt they needed an earthly King. Many of us believe that our rights are derived from the state, instead of from God. The West is drifting back to "the Law" ruling the hearts of men, not because of the will of God, but because men think they can be as gods & control good & evil. Power grabbers among us do what power grabbers always do, while the rest of us will mostly go along to get along.
Have you read any commentaries on, "The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de la Boétie"? For all I know, you're the one who originally posted the link to it at FR. LOL Anyway, here's a link, but you're gonna have to C&P it if you wanna read it.
http://www.mises.org/rothbard/boetie.asp#_ftnref61
I just finished reading The Life of Jesus, by Ernest Renan. It moved me a lot. He denied the Incarnation, the Trinity, etc., and at first I was worried about reading it, thinking it would adversely affect my Faith. But just the opposite happened -you can't be afraid to read things, that's a mark of fear and servility.
I agree. Can't know if there's any tensile in your beliefs unless you've tested them & when you find that they've stood the test, they're stronger than ever.
Anyway, he does a masteful job of bringing the human Jesus into the fore. But as he does it, the main thought that accompanies everything is this Human must needs be Divine.
There's no doubt in my mind.
It was also a sad read, because I sensed that he wanted to believe, but his logic forbade it. And because of that there was a melancholy strain through the whole thing.
I've come across people like that. In fact, one of my sons is like that. It's like, they're hollow, crying out to be filled up.
Only thing I want to add is that even those wanting that "the law" should rule the hearts of men can't run from Jesus' comprehensive Founding of all that they deem worthwhile.
Hippies were a prime example of trying to take what Jesus left, throw in a little of Jesus himself for good measure, and then setting him aside as some sort of incidental comrade. Hence the vanity of the thinking that Jesus was a democrat, and the even greater vanity of the fundamentalists who assert the oppposite.
When I was reading The Life of Jesus, it struck me how much we all really want to find the veritable and touchable Historical Jesus. And, I think that's because our knowledge of Him through Scripture really is like looking through a glass darkly. We can't really lay hold of His Divinity in a way that's touchable, so we look for the human to make it more easily apprehended. It's a never ending search for those who feel the call to Imitation.