''Non serviam'' is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "I will not serve". Today "non serviam" is also used as a

motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

by a number of

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, and

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

groups to express their wish to rebel. It may be used to express a radical view against established beliefs and organizational structures accepted as the status quo.

Use

In the

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

laments that the people of Israel speak "''non serviam''" to express their rejection of God (). This is the only appearance of the phrase in the Vulgate. In

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the second book and first novel of Irish writer James Joyce, published in 1916. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Ste ...

'', Stephen Dedalus says "I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use – silence, exile, and cunning." In a climactic moment of ''Ulysses'', Dedalus is confronted in a brothel by an apparition of his dead mother, urging him to repent and avoid "the fire of hell." He cries out "''Ah non, par exemple!'' The intellectual imagination! With me all or not at all. Non serviam! (...) No! No! No! Break my spirit all of you if you can! I'll bring you all to heel!" In modern times, "''non serviam''" has developed into a general phrase used to express radical, sometimes even revolutionary rejection of conformity, not necessarily limited to religious matters and as expressed in modern literary adaptations of the motto. Non Serviam was the third single released from

Frank Turner Francis Edward Turner (born 28 December 1981) is an English Punk rock, punk and Folk music, folk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Hampshire. He began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primaril ...

's No. 1 Album FTHC. It is also the name of a French underground extreme music collective.Bandcamp page: https://non-serviam.bandcamp.com/

References

External links

A Latin VulgateJeremiah 2:20
{{DEFAULTSORT:Non Serviam Latin religious words and phrases Cultural depictions of the Devil Authority Disobedience