Religion

Hardly any term of the intellectual life seems to have such multifarious meanings as religion. Religion is of great importance for the development of mankind and its history, as it represents the human reaction to an extrahuman holy, transcendent, and divine object. The term religion has its etymologic and historical roots in the Roman world, unlike the term faith, which has its origin in the New Testament Paulinic word pístis (Greek), or fides (Latin). The Latin noun religio originates from the verb re-legere, which has the various meanings to do sth. diligently, to do sth. again, to re-read sth., as M. T. Cicero has also uttered. The prefix re- could even be translated as to do sth. diligently again and again. That includes the careful execution of cults prescribed by law cults, which were valid only with exact observance of all these prescriptions. The Latin termreligio, therefore, expresses in classical Roman culture the meticulous observance of cults and the consequent respect of man for their gods. Friedrich Heiler correctly puts the verbre-legere opposite to the verb neg-legere (to neglect). The derivation of the noun religio from religare (to connect, to reconnect) is in general to deny as one can see in it a feeling of an inner attachment to something transcendent, which was strange to classical beliefs. Religio in its character is in Roman antiquity more a virtue than a state of feeling. The diligent performance of rites was connected with a kind of pious awe that did not necessarily assume that the person who did the religious acts was inwardly moved:

Just this matter makes the Roman religioincomprehensible for us, the adjective religiosus, which, according to Friedrich Heiler “initially marked a place or day as sacred,” is now applied to characterize people and means “pious” and having “fear of God.”

In another, later development, homo religiosusmeans “member of an order,” a person who lives according to the “evangelical vows” (poverty, chastity, obedience),and wants to be a good example to others in his religious life. From this meaning, maybe especially from the word pious, the noun religion, which may not be equated with the Latin noun religio, came into the Christian-shaped, Western culture.

The definition of religion as “devoutness or expression of devoutness” shows only inaccurately the full meaning of the word. The fides quaerens intellectum (“faith that searches for insight”) is also included in the concept of religion. In Christian antiquity, with St. Augustine, and in the Middle Ages, with St. Thomas Aquinas, religio means Christianity, the Christian religion alone. Non-Christian religions could only be called lex, secta, or fides. The term lex has a universal meaning, according to our expression “denomination or total structure of life.” There is also a lex Christianorum, which means “doctrine and law of the Christian religion.” The development of the term religion is by no means steady or logical. With the help of historical development, beginning with classical antiquity up to the Augsburger Religionsfrieden in 1555, which is characterized by the motto cuius regio, eius religio (“whose region, whose religion”), Ernst Feil was not able to find a continuous development to the modern term religion. Religio cannot be translated by or equated with religion in today's meaning.

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