Concept and Etymology: Religio History of Religion

Concept and etymology
See also: Religio and History of Religion

Religion (from O.Fr. religion religious community, from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what
is sacred, reverence for the gods, sense of right, moral obligation, sanctity",[14] "obligation, the bond
between man and the gods"[15]) is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are
obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i.e. re (again) with lego in
the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The definition of religio by Cicero is cultum
deorum, "the proper performance of rites in veneration of the gods."[16] Julius Caesar used religio to
mean "obligation of an oath" when discussing captured soldiers making an oath to their captors.
[17]
The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder used the term religio on elephants in that they venerate the
sun and the moon.[18] Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the
derivation from ligare bind, connect, probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) + ligare or to
reconnect, which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation given
by Lactantius in Divinae institutiones, IV, 28.[19][20] The medieval usage alternates with order in
designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders: "we hear of the 'religion' of
the Golden Fleece, of a knight 'of the religion of Avys'".[21]
In classic antiquity, 'religio' broadly meant conscientiousness, sense of right, moral obligation, or
duty to anything.[22] In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was
understood as an individual virtue of worship in mundane contexts; never as doctrine, practice, or
actual source of knowledge.[23][24] In general, religio referred to broad social obligations towards
anything including family, neighbors, rulers, and even towards God.[25] Religio was most often used
by the ancient Romans not in the context of a relation towards gods, but as a range of general
emotions such as hesitation, caution, anxiety, fear; feelings of being bound, restricted, inhibited;
which arose from heightened attention in any mundane context.[26] The term was also closely related
to other terms like scrupulus which meant "very precisely" and some Roman authors related the
term superstitio, which meant too much fear or anxiety or shame, to religio at times.
[26]
When religio came into English around the 1200s as religion, it took the meaning of "life bound by
monastic vows" or monastic orders.[21][25] The compartmentalized concept of religion, where religious
things were separated from worldly things, was not used before the 1500s.[25] The concept of religion
was first used in the 1500s to distinguish the domain of the church and the domain of civil
authorities.[25]
In the ancient Greece, the Greek term threskeia was loosely translated into Latin as religio in late
antiquity. The term was sparsely used in classical Greece but became more frequently used in the
writings of Josephus in the first century CE. It was used in mundane contexts and could mean
multiple things from respectful fear to excessive or harmfully distracting practices of others; to cultic
practices. It was often contrasted with the Greek word deisidaimonia which meant too much fear.[27]
The modern concept of religion, as an abstraction that entails distinct sets of beliefs or doctrines, is a
recent invention in the English language. Such usage began with texts from the 17th century due to
events such the splitting of Christendom during the Protestant Reformation and globalization in the
age of exploration, which involved contact with numerous foreign cultures with non-European
languages.[23][24][28] Some argue that regardless of its definition, it is not appropriate to apply the term
religion to non-Western cultures.[29][30] Others argue that using religion on non-Western cultures
distorts what people do and believe.[31]
The concept of religion was formed in the 16th and 17th centuries,[32][33] despite the fact that ancient
sacred texts like the Bible, the Quran, and others did not have a word or even a concept of religion in
the original languages and neither did the people or the cultures in which these sacred texts were
written.[34][35] For example, there is no precise equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not
distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities.[36] One of its central
concepts is halakha, meaning the walk or path sometimes translated as law, which guides religious
practice and belief and many aspects of daily life.[37] Even though the beliefs and traditions of
Judaism are found in the ancient world, ancient Jews saw Jewish identity as being about an ethnic
or national identity and did not entail a compulsory belief system or regulated rituals.[38] Even in the
1st century CE, Josephus had used the Greek term ioudaismos, which some translate as Judaism
today, even though he used it as an ethnic term, not one linked to modern abstract concepts of
religion as a set of beliefs.[3] It was in the 19th century that Jews began to see their ancestral culture
as a religion analogous to Christianity.[38] The Greek word threskeia, which was used by Greek
writers such as Herodotus and Josephus, is found in the New Testament. Threskeia is sometimes
translated as religion in today's translations, however, the term was understood as worship well into
the medieval period.[3] In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern
translations, but up to the mid-1600s translators expressed din as law.[3]
The Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, also means law. Throughout
classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through
piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a similar union
between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of
power.[39][40]
Throughout the Americas, Native Americans never had a concept of "religion" since their traditions
do not fit into such European concepts.[41]
Though traditions, sacred texts, and practices have existed throughout time, most cultures did not
align with Western conceptions of religion since they did not separate everyday life from the sacred.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, and world
religions first entered the English language.[42][43][44] No one self-identified as a Hindu or Buddhist or
other similar terms before the 1800s.[45] "Hindu" has historically been used as a geographical,
cultural, and later religious identifier for people indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.[46][47] Throughout
its long history, Japan had no concept of religion since there was no corresponding Japanese word,
nor anything close to its meaning, but when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in
1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom
of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea.[48][49]
According to the philologist Max Müller in the 19th century, the root of the English word religion,
the Latin religio, was originally used to mean only reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering
of divine things, piety (which Cicero further derived to mean diligence).[50][51] Max Müller characterized
many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, and India, as having a similar power
structure at this point in history. What is called ancient religion today, they would have only called
law.[52]

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Concept and etymology

See also: Religio and History of Religion

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