Etymology: The classical etymology of the word, traced to Cicero himself, derives it from relegere, as in, re, ‘again’ + lego, ‘read’, where lego is in the sense of ‘go over’, ‘choose’, or ‘consider carefully’. Modern scholars have argued that religio is derived from religare, as in, re, ‘again’ + ligare, ‘bind’ or ‘connect’, which was made prominent by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 ᴄᴇ), following the interpretation of Lactantius in Divinae Institutiones. (...elided...). When religio came into English early in the thirteenth century as religion, it took the meaning of “life bound by monastic vows” or “monastic orders”. (...elided...). Within the system of what would now be called “Roman religion” (in the modern sense of the word), the term religio originally meant an obligation to the gods, something expected by them from human beings or a matter of particular care or concern as related to the gods, “reverence for God or the gods”; “careful pondering of divine things, piety”.
In this sense, religio might be translated better as ‘religious scruple’ than with the English word ‘religion’. One definition of religio offered by Cicero is cultus deorum, “the proper performance of rites in veneration of the gods”.

Also, religio among the Romans was not based on ‘faith’, but on knowledge, including and especially correct practice. Thus religio (plural religiones) was the pious practice of Rome’s traditional cults, and was a cornerstone of the mos maiorum, the traditional social norms which regulated public, private, and military life. To the Romans, their success was self-evidently due to their practice of proper, respectful religio, which gave the gods what was owed them and which was rewarded with social harmony, peace and prosperity.

Religious law maintained the proprieties of divine honours, sacrifice, and ritual. Impure sacrifice and incorrect ritual were vitia (faults, hence ‘vice’, the English derivative); excessive devotion, fearful grovelling to deities, and the improper use or seeking of divine knowledge were superstitio; neglecting the religiones owed to the traditional gods was atheism, a charge leveled during the Empire at Jews, Christians, and Epicureans. Any of these moral deviations could cause divine anger (ira deorum) and, therefore, harm the State. ~ (2023 Wikipedia Encyclopaedia).

2. the healthful development and right life of the spiritual nature, as contrasted with that of the mere intellectual and social powers;

3. any system of faith in and worship of a divine Being or beings; as, the Christian religion; the religion of the Jews, Greeks, Hindus, or Mohammedans;

4.† the rites or services of religion; the practice of sacred rites and ceremonies;

5. the state of life of a professed member of a regular monastic order; as, to enter religion; her name in religion is Mary Aloysia; now especially in Roman Catholic use;

6. (obsolete or provincial): a conscientious scruple; scrupulosity;

7. sense of obligation; conscientiousness; sense of duty; established religion, that form of religion in a country which is recognised and sanctioned by the state; see establishment⁶;

evidences of revealed religion: see evidences of Christianity, under Christianity;

experimental religion: see experimental;

natural religion: that knowledge of and reverent feeling toward God, and that knowledge and practice of our duties toward our fellow-men, which is based on and derived from nature, apart from revelation;

religion of humanity: see positive philosophy, under positive;

revealed religion: that knowledge of God and right feeling toward him, and that recognition and practice of duty toward our fellow-men, which is derived from and based upon positive revelation;

to experience religion: see experience;

to get religion: see get¹;

(synonyms): 1. religion, devotion, piety, sanctity, saintliness, godliness, holiness, religiosity; in the subjective aspect of these words religion is the most general, as it may be also the most formal or external; in this sense it is the place of the will and character of God in the heart, so that they are the principal object of regard and the controlling influence; devotion and piety have most of fervour; devotion is a religion which consecrates itself, being both a close attention to God with complete inward subjection and an equal attention to the duties of religion; piety is religion under the aspect of filial feeling and conduct, the former being the primary idea; sanctity is generally used objectively as it is the same as holiness subjectively; saintliness is more concrete than sanctity, more distinctly a quality of a person, likeness to a saint, ripeness for heaven; godliness is higher than saintliness as it is likeness to God, or the endeavour to attain such likeness; fixed attention given immediately to God, especially obedience to his will and endeavour to copy his character; holiness is the most absolute of these words; it is moral and religious wholeness, completeness, or something approaching so near to absolute freedom from sin as to make the word appropriate; it includes not only being free from sin, but refusing it and hating it for its own sake; religiosity is not a very common nor a very euphonious word {i.e., pleasant in sound; agreeable to the ear}, but seems to meet a felt want by expressing a susceptibility to the sentiments of religion, awe, reverence, admiration for the teachings of religion, etc., without much disposition to obey its commands. [from Middle English religiun, religioun, from Old French religium, religion, French religion = Provinçal religião, religion = Spanish religion = Portuguese religião = Italian religione = Dutch religie = German, Swedish, Danish religion, from Latin religio, religio(n-), relligio(n-), ‘reverence toward the gods’, ‘fear of God’, ‘piety’, ‘conscientious scrupulousness’, ‘religious awe’, ‘conscientiousness’, ‘exactness’; origin uncertain, being disputed by ancient writers themselves:
(a) according to Marcus Tullius Cicero, from relegere, ‘go through’ or ‘over again’ in ‘reading, speech, or thought’ (“qui omnia quae ad cultum deorum pertinerent diligenter retractarent et tamquam relegerent sunt dieti religiosi ex relegendo, ut elegantes ex eligendo” {=‘who carefully reconsidered everything that pertained to the worship of the gods, and as if they were relegating religious diets from relegating, as elegant from choosing’}, etc. (from Marcus Tullius Cicero, “de Natura Deorum” {On the Nature of Gods}, ii. 28, 72), whence ppr. religen(t-)s (rare), ‘revering the gods’, ‘pious’ (cf. the opposite negligen(t-)s, ‘negligent’); cf. Greek άλέγειν, ‘reverence’;

• institution (n.): 1. (a.) a custom, practice, relationship, or function; 2. (a.) an established organisation or foundation, especially one dedicated to education, public service, or culture; (b.) a building or complex of buildings housing such an organisation. ~ (American Heritage Medical Dictionary).

• institution (n.): any public or private entity or agency, or medical or dental facility where clinical trials are conducted. ~ (Segen’s Medical Dictionary).

• institution (n.): 1. (...); 2. (...); 3. (...); 4. established rule or order; a principle of procedure in any relation; custom; more specifically, an established habit of action, or body of related facts, regulating human conduct in the attainment of a social end, and constituting an element in the social organisation or civilisation of a community: as, government, the family, a language, is an institution; [e.g.]: “Never any Religion or Institution in the World made it so much its business to keep men from doing evil, and to perswade them to do good, as the Christian doth”. (Bishop Edward Stillingfleet, 1635-1699, “Sermons”, II. iii); “Literary fosterage was an institution nearly connected with the existence of the Brehon law schools”. (Sir Henry Sumner Maine, 1822-1888, “Lectures on the Early History of Institutions”, p. 242); 5. (chiefly colloquial) an established custom or usage, or a characteristic; [e.g.]: “The camels form an institution of India—possibly a part of the traditional policy—and they must be respected accordingly”. (The Times, London, April, 1858); “The pillory was a flourishing and popular institution in those days. Authors stood in it in the body sometimes”. (William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811-1863, “English Humorists”, p. 207); 6. an establishment for the promotion of some object; an organised society or body of persons, usually with a fixed place of assemblage and operation, devoted to a special pursuit or purpose: as, an educational institution; a charitable institution; the Smithsonian Institution at Washington; [e.g.]: “This led in 1796 to the formation of a Trade Society, the so-called Institution, among the Clothworkers at Halifax, to prevent people from carrying on the trade in violation of custom and law”. (English Guilds; E. E. T. S., Int., p. clxxii); “The word institution, in a statute exempting property of charitable institutions from taxation, signifies an organisation which is permanent in its nature, as contradistinguished from an undertaking which is transient or temporary. It designates corporations or other organised bodies created to administer charities, and exempts the property which they own and use for their charitable purposes, and that only”. (Humphries v. Little Sisters of the Poor, 29 Ohio Statutes, 201); 7. (...); 8. (a.) (...); (b.) (...). [from Dutch instituut = German, Danish, Swedish institut, from French institut = Provinçal istitut = Spanish, Portuguese instituto = Italian instituto, istituto, from Latin institutum, ‘a purpose’, ‘design’, ‘regulation’, ‘ordinance’, ‘instruction’, etc., prop. neut. of institutus, pp. of instituere, ‘set up’, ‘institute’; see institute, verb]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• institutionalist (n.): a writer on institutes or elementary rules, especially on legal institutes; same as institutist. [from institutional + -ist]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

Random Literary Samples.

• “He certainly was not a manufacturer; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. His name was strange to the scientific and learned societies, and he never was known to take part in the sage deliberations of the Royal *Institution* or the London *Institution,* the Artisan’s Association, or the *Institution* of Arts and Sciences. He belonged, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capital”. [emphases added]. ~ (Chapter One, “Around The World In Eighty Days”, 1872, Jules Verne; 1828-1905).

• [Abstract]: “Some economists argue that *institutions* are the most important factor affecting variation in economic growth. There is a need, however, to better understand how and why *institutions* emerge and change. Informed by evolutionary theory and complexity science, this chapter develops a conceptual framework that follows models of cultural evolution in viewing *institutions* as part of a non-genetic system of inheritance. This framework is used to examine how broad historical factors (not just economic factors) influence present-day institutional arrangements and economic outcomes, as well as how non-institutional aspects of culture (e.g., values, beliefs) interact with *institutions* to shape behaviour in particular contexts. Overall, this framework emphasises the processes by which *institutions* evolve, and how they can coevolve with other *institutions* and culture. This approach is illustrated using four examples to demonstrate how evolution theory and complexity science can be used to study institutional emergence and change. Explicit models of the processes of institutional evolution need to be developed and then tested and assessed with data. This framework holds promise to bring together and synthesise the findings and insights from a range of different disciplines...”. [emphases added]. ~ (from the Abstract, for “Evolution of Institutions and Organisations”, Thomas Currie, Peter Turchin, Jenna Bednar, Peter J. Richerson, Georg Schwesinger, Sven Steinmo, Romain Wacziarg, and John Wallis).

• [India]: “An *institution* is an established way of behaving or established forms of procedure. It consists of all the structural components of a society through which the main concerns and activities are organised and social needs such as those for order, belief and reproduction are met. The term *institution* was used by Parsons and Spencer in this sense. These sociologists considered institutions as central to the notion of society as an organism or functioning system. There are five primary social institutions: family, economy, religion, education and state”. [emphases and italics added]. ~ (from “What is the Concept of Institution in Sociology”, by India for Socio-quest; April 10, 2009).

• [Ajani Oluwatoyin Ayodele]: “Humans live in societies where several *institutions* exist. *Institutions* are organs or systems of the society which keep the society going; they are the propelling forces which keep the existence and continuity of the society. One of such *institutions* is social institutions. A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms organised around the preservation of a basic societal value. Obviously, the sociologist does not define *institutions* in the same way as does the person on the street. Lay persons are likely to use the term “institution” very loosely, for churches, hospitals, jails, and many others as if they were social institutions. Sociologists often reserve the term “institution” to describe normative systems which operate in five basic areas of life, which may be designated as the primary institutions. (1) in determining kinship; (2) in providing for the legitimate use of power; (3) in regulating the distribution of goods and services; (4) in transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next; (5) in regulating human relations to the supernatural. In shorthand form, or as concepts, these five basic institutions are called the family, government, economy, education and religion. Thus social institutions are established or standardised patterns of rule-governed behaviour. They include the family, education, religion, and economic and political *institutions*. A social institution may be defined as an organisational system which functions to satisfy basic social needs by providing an ordered framework linking the individual to the larger culture...”. [emphases and italics added]. ~ (from “Social Institutions”, by Ajani Oluwatoyin Ayodele, Lagos State University, Nigeria; uploaded by Toyin Ajani; November 06, 2016).

RETURN TO DEFINITIONS INDEX

RICHARD’S HOME PAGE

The Third Alternative

(Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body)

Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one.

Richard's Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust: 1997-.  All Rights Reserved.

Disclaimer and Use Restrictions and Guarantee of Authenticity