Superstition
Superstitio ( Latin , from the adjective super-stes, Gen. super-stitis "above, above", translated: "superior"), German also superstition (as "faulty or wrong religious cult"), literally translated means superstition and means originally in Old Latin probably being outside of oneself, i.e. the ecstasy during a sacrifice for fortune-telling purposes.
With the abuse of such mind-altering forms of worship or cult , a contemptuous sound seems to have mixed in, which later became dominant. Here the word is in opposition to religio , as evidenced by Marcus Terentius Varro (after Augustine von Hippo : De civitate Dei , 6,9,2):
- " [...] religiosum a superstitioso ea distinctione discernat [Varro], ut a superstitioso dicat timeri deos, a religioso autem tantum uereri ut parentes, non ut hostes timeri, [...] " ( [Varro] distinguishes the religious from the superstitious in that the superstitious fear the gods, but the religious worship them as much as his own parents and not fear like enemies. )
In Nero's time , the term was used against the Christians, either in the form of superstitio illicita (illegal cult) or as exitiabilis superstitio (ominous cult). Tacitus reports that Nero blackened the Christians in order to refute the allegations against himself (Annales XV, 44).
In his work “ de natura deorum ” (On the essence of the gods), Cicero uses superstitio as an antithesis to religiosity . For him, superstitio denotes an exaggerated veneration and fear of the gods. In contrast, he regards religion as a cult according to fixed guidelines and dutiful worship of the gods.
In German, superstition corresponds to superstition and, depending on the context, also means, for example, “fortune-telling”, “remnants of earlier religious practices” or (in the Christian Middle Ages) “pagan devil pact”.
literature
- August Friedrich Pauly (greeting): Superstitio . In: The Little Pauly , Vol. 5 . Dtv, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-05963-3 , Sp. 434 (reprint of the Munich edition 1964/75).
- Alois Walde , Johann B. Hoffmann: Latin etymological dictionary . 6th edition. Verlag Winter, Heidelberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8253-0669-4 (reprint of the edition Heidelberg 1956).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Viktor Cathrein : Moral Philosophy. A scientific exposition of the moral, including the legal, order. 2 volumes, 5th, newly worked through edition. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1911, p. 50.
- ↑ Aurelius Augustine: De civitate Dei Liber VI
- ^ Bernhard Dietrich Haage: Superstition and sorcery in Middle High German poetry. In: Mannheim reports. Volume 30, 1986, pp. 53-72.