Cult is the care (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

: '' cultus'') owed to deities and temples, shrines, or churches. Cult is embodied in

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

and ceremony. Its present or former presence is made concrete in

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called church (building), churches), Hindui ...

s, shrines and churches, and

cult image In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and R ...

s, including votive offerings at

votive site Votive sites are sites where animal sacrifice, in the form of bones deposited in a split in a block of stone or beneath a cairn, are made. The sites strongly resemble graves or tombs; however, no human bones are found. Such finds are made in Hal ...

Etymology

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the est ...

defined '' religio'' as ''cultus deorum'', "the cultivation of the gods." The "cultivation" necessary to maintain a specific deity was that god's ''cultus,'' "cult," and required "the knowledge of giving the gods their due" ''(scientia colendorum deorum)''. The noun ''cultus'' originates from the past participle of the verb ''colo, colere, colui, cultus'', "to tend, take care of, cultivate," originally meaning "to dwell in, inhabit" and thus "to tend, cultivate land ''(ager)''; to practice agriculture," an activity fundamental to Roman identity even when Rome as a political center had become fully urbanized. ''Cultus'' is often translated as "cult" without the negative connotations the word may have in English, or with the Old English word " worship", but it implies the necessity of active maintenance beyond passive adoration. ''Cultus'' was expected to matter to the gods as a demonstration of respect, honor, and reverence; it was an aspect of the contractual nature of Roman religion (see '' do ut des'').

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North A ...

echoes Cicero's formulation when he declares, "''religion'' is nothing other than the ''cultus'' of God."Augustine, ''De Civitate Dei'' 10.1; Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods,'' p. 6. The term "cult" first appeared in English in 1617, derived from the French ''culte'', meaning " worship" which in turn originated from the

word ''cultus'' meaning "care, cultivation, worship". The meaning "devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829. Starting about 1920, "cult" acquired an additional six or more positive and negative definitions. In French, for example, sections in newspapers giving the schedule of worship for Catholic services are headed ''Culte Catholique'', while the section giving the schedule of Protestant services is headed ''culte réformé''. Within the Catholic Church, the most prominent cults are those of the saints.

Outward religious practice

In the specific context of the

Greek hero cult Hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, " hero" (, ) refers to the mortal offspring of a human and a god. By the historical period, however, the word came to mean specifically a ''dead'' ...

, Carla Antonaccio wrote: In the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, outward religious practice in ''cultus'' is the technical term for Roman Catholic devotions or veneration extended to a particular saint, not to the worship of God. Catholicism and the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

make a major distinction between '' latria'', the worship that is offered to God alone, and '' dulia'', which is veneration offered to the saints, including the veneration of Mary, whose veneration is often referred to as '' hyperdulia''.

Etymology

Outward religious practice

See also

References

Further reading