Cult is the

care Care may refer to: Organizations and projects * CARE (New Zealand), Citizens Association for Racial Equality, a former New Zealand organisation * CARE (relief agency), "Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere", an international aid and ...

( Latin: '' cultus'') owed to

deities A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

and temples, shrines, or churches. Cult is embodied in ritual and

ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...

. Its present or former presence is made concrete in temples, 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 Rome ...

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 defined ''

religio The Latin term ''religiō'', the origin of the modern lexeme ''religion'' (via Old French/ Middle Latin), is of ultimately obscure etymology. It is recorded beginning in the 1st century BC, i.e. in Classical Latin at the end of the Roman Republ ...

'' 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 In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

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 Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

word "

worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition ...

", 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 The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence o ...

'').

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 Af ...

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 "

" which in turn originated from the Latin 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 In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual res ...

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'' m ...

, Carla Antonaccio wrote: In the Catholic Church, outward religious practice in ''cultus'' is the technical term for Roman Catholic devotions or veneration extended to a particular

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

, not to the worship of God. Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox Church 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