Brief History of the Term ‘Religion’

Ancient Rome

• Religion – derived from the word ‘religare,’ meaning to rebind or relink

• To talk about “religion” was to talk about a serious obligation of a person

• Religion encompassed cultic practices, civic oaths and family practices

• In other words, religion encompassed all areas of life

Early Christianity

• Religion was a minor concept• The term ‘religion’ only appears six times in

the Vulgate (the Latin translation of the Bible)• Even when it appears there, it is a translation

of several different Greek terms

Patristic Period

• The term ‘religion’ is scattered throughout Patristic writings

• It had a number of different meanings• Meanings included 1) ritual practice, 2) clerical

office, 3) worship, 4) piety, and 5) the disposition of the worshipper toward God

Augustine (354-430)

• First Patristic author to write a treatise on religion• For Augustine, religion (religio) means worship• Was concerned with the difference between true

religion (worship) and false religion (worship)• False religion (worship) is directed to created or

passing things• Religion encompasses the whole of social relations,

including politics, culture, and family obligations

Medieval Period

• The term ‘religion’ is hardly used at all• When it was used, it referred primarily to the

state of life under monastic vows• The first use of religion in the plural referred

to various orders living under a religious rule• The “religions” were the Benedictines,

Dominicans, and Franciscans

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

• Uses the term “religio” in various ways• Like previous uses, it refers to piety and

religious orders• But in a new way, it is used to refer to a

particular moral, but not theological virtue• In particular, religion falls under the category of

justice• Religion renders unto God what belongs to God,

and that is worship and praise

Summary of Term’s Usage So Far

• 1) Not a universal genus, and Christianity is not particular species

• 2) Not a system of beliefs. It is primarily a disposition toward excellence through disciplines of body and soul

• 3) Not a “private” impulse of the soul. Religion was manifest in monastic life and discipline.

• 4) Not a separate area of life, but permeated it throughout

Early Modern Period

• Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) uses term ‘religion’ to talk about the different ways Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship

• Marcilio Ficino is one of the first to universalize and interiorize the term

• Religion becomes a matter of the human heart• Gave way to emphasis of belief over practice

Reformation Era

• Emphasis on religion as doctrine or a body of beliefs

• Religion was spoken of more in the plural• Religions, however, referred to Catholicism,

Lutheranism, and Calvinism

Modern Period

• The term religion comes more and more to an interior and apolitical impulse

• Less and less does it refer to bodily practices that encompass the whole of life

• As the term is used, religion thus becomes more and more “privatized”

• And as a result, spatial divisions in life between “religious” pursuits and “secular” pursuit are introduced for the first time