enthusiasm
Enthusiasm today generally denotes an enthusiasm or enthusiasm for something, an increased joy in certain topics or actions, an extreme commitment to a cause or an unusually intense interest in a special area. The term enthusiasm is also used synonymously , which, according to Duden, means a “state of joyful excitement, passionate zeal; thirst for action carried by joyfully excited approval, passionate concern; High spirits, enthusiasm ”.
According to its origin, the term originally referred to inspiration through a divine inspiration or through the influence or presence of a god (since the 16th century in German verifiable Latinized borrowing of the Greek ἐνθουσιασμός , enthousiasmós , originally “obsession with God” or “I carry God in me. ”, an abstraction from ἔνθεος , éntheos , literally“ the one filled by God ”, from ἐν , en ,“ in ”and θεός , theós ,“ God ”).
History of religion
Originally, an enthusiast was understood to be a person possessed by a god . In ancient Greece was enthousiasmos an expression of a divine possession: At Apollo , the oracular Pythian , when Dionysus and the Bacchantes and Maenads , the term "enthusiasm" was also used in a metaphorical or figurative sense. So Socrates speaks of the poet's inspiration as a form of enthusiasm. He uses the term in a religious sense, but distinguishes it from extreme religious zeal or an exaggerated or false belief in religious inspiration.
Followers of a Syrian sect of the 4th century were called "enthusiasts". They believed that through incessant prayer, ascetic practices, and meditation , man could obtain inspiration from the Holy Spirit regardless of the ruling evil forces to which he had been subjected since the Fall . The Euchites are also known for their enthusiastic belief in the effectiveness of prayer .
Several Protestant groups in the 16th and 17th centuries were considered enthusiastic about their religious zeal. Lord Shaftesbury's influential Letter A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (1708) opposes the sectarian practices of the French camisards and any form of religious fanaticism. At the same time he refers to a nobler form of "enthusiasm" in view of the divinely ordered, harmonious nature. In the 18th century in England and North America popular Methodists such as John Wesley or George Whitefield were pejoratively referred to as “enthusiasts”, and that was called blind religious fanatics in the parlance at the time .
Conceptual history from the 18th century
In the 18th century the meaning of the word became more general and secular: In today's common parlance, the term enthusiasm has lost its special religious meaning and rather describes an unlimited, emotional and personal commitment to an ideal or a common cause. The term also describes the particular effort with which one pursues certain goals. Sometimes the term pejorative denotes an overly partisan devotion and a radical authoritarian dogmatism that closes itself off to all difficulties and objections raised against it. The verb to inspire for 'put in a heightened mood, joyfully excite' is a prefix verb formed into spirit in the 17th century , which initially meant 'fill with spirit', i.e. 'animate, animate' and developed in today's sense. In the 18th century in particular, the noun enthusiasm became increasingly popular.
The expression passion , a translation by Philipp von Zesen from the Latin word passio , can today be understood as a synonym for this term of “enthusiasm”.
literature
- Bernd Bösel: Philosophy and Enthusiasm. Studies on a controversial relationship , Passagen, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3851658514 .
- Manfred Engel : The enthusiast's rehabilitation. Theory and representation of enthusiasm in the late Enlightenment and early Goethe time. In: Hans-Jürgen Schings (Ed.): The whole person. Anthropology and Literature in the 18th Century. Metzler, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-476-00997-1 , pp. 469-498.
- Christian Löser: Enthusiasmus , in: Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism , Volume 3, level to extremism . Argument, Hamburg 1997, Sp. 480-484, ISBN 3-88619-433-7 .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Enthusiasm , duden.de, accessed on October 7, 2014
- ^ A b Kluge Etymological Dictionary of the German Language , 24th edition
- ↑ Enthusiasm in DWDS , accessed on October 7, 2014