Names: and Their Meaning. Leopold Wagner
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for the worship of Odin, or Wodin, the God of Magic and the Inventor of the Arts; Thursday, the day of Thor, the son of Odin (or Wodin), and the God of Thunder; Friday, allotted to Frigga, the wife of Odin, and the Goddess of Marriage; and Saturday, the day of Saturn, one of the planets of the solar system.
CREEDS, SECTS, AND DENOMINATIONS
Theism and Deism both express a belief in God; the former term being derived from the Greek Theos, God, and the latter from the Latin, Deus, God. The Theist, however, admits the Theocracy or Government of God (Greek Theos, God, and kratein, to govern); the Deist, on the contrary, maintains that God in the beginning implanted in all His works certain immutable laws, comprehended by mankind under the name of the “Laws of Nature,” which act of themselves, and are no longer subject to the supervision of the Creator. Pantheism (from the Greek pan, all, everything, and Theos, God) is the religion which rejects a belief in a personal God, but recognizes Him in all the processes, and works, and glories, and beauties of Nature, and animated creation. Briefly, the Pantheist holds the doctrine that “God is everything, and everything is God.” The word Atheism comes from the Greek Theos, God, and the prefix a, without. An Atheist, therefore, practically answers to the description given by David in the opening line of Psalm xiv., “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Agnosticism is also Greek, in accordance with the prefix a, without, and gnomi, to know. An Agnostic is one whose belief is confined to that which he knows and sees, and who rejects everything at all beyond his understanding. Secularism, derived from the Latin seculum, an age, a generation, is the term given to the principles advocated by Messrs. Holyoake in 1846, which professed an entire independence of religion, except so far as it pertains to this life. The Secularist aims at promoting the happiness of the community during the present life. His religion is that of this world, without troubling himself about possibilities concerning a life hereafter. Such views are closely allied to those set forth by John Stuart Mill (born 1806, died 1873) under the name of Utilitarianism, by which was meant, “the happiness of the greatest number.” This term was based upon the Latin utilitas, usefulness. Spiritualism expresses a belief in the soul’s immortality, as opposed to the doctrine of Materialism, which contends that the soul, or thinking part of man, is the result of some peculiar organization of matter in the body, with which it must necessarily die. Rationalism constitutes the doctrine which accepts the test of Reason and Experience in the pursuit of knowledge, particularly in regard to religious truth, rejecting the gift of Faith, Revelation, and everything connected with the supernatural or miraculous. This was the religion (!) of the French Revolutionists, who set up an actress to be publicly honoured as the “Goddess of Reason” in the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame on the 10th of November, 1793.
The earliest form of religion on the face of the earth was Monotheism, so called from the Greek monos, alone, only, and Theos, God; therefore signifying a belief in, and the worship of, one Only God. The word Religion is derived from the Latin religare, to bind. Hence, Religion implies obedience, submission, and an acknowledgment of certain orthodox doctrines regarding our duty to a Supreme Power. Mosaism, otherwise Judaism, denotes the religion of the Jews as enjoined in the laws of Moses. But even during that favoured period when God manifested Himself in various ways to the children of Israel, Idolatry prevailed. Let us consider what this word Idolatry really means. Idol is a contraction of the Greek eidolon, the diminutive of eidos, a figure, an image, or that which is seen, derived from the verb eidein, to see; while Idolater is made up of the two Greek words, eidolon, and latres, one who pays homage, a worshipper. An Idolater, therefore, is a worshipper of images, or that which he sees. The Israelites, who prostrated themselves before the Golden Calf, were strictly Idolaters; so were the Egyptians, who worshipped the sun, the moon, the ox, the dog, the cat, the ibis, and the ichneumon; but the Greeks and Romans were scarcely Idolaters, because the mythological deities they worshipped were unseen—as unseen as is the True God Himself. Neither were they Pagans, which term, from the Latin paganus, a countryman, a peasant, based upon pagus, a country, a district, has nothing whatever to do with religion. The Greeks and Romans were, in fact, Polytheists, and their religion was Polytheism, signifying, in accordance with the Greek polus, many, and Theos, God, a belief in more gods than one. The more general description of the religion of the ancients is comprised in the term Mythology, written in the Greek muthologia, from muthos, a fable, and logos, a discourse.
Alluding to the Fire Worshippers of the East, who fall prostrate in adoration of the sun, it should be noted that these do not actually worship the sun, but God, whom they believe to reside in it. This Sun or Fire Worship, the religion of the Parsees, otherwise denominated Zoroastrianism, was introduced into Persia by Zoroaster about five hundred years before the Christian era. In short, the Parsees are the descendants of those who, in Persia, adhered to the Zoroastrian religion after the Moslem or Mahommedan conquest of their country, whence they were at length driven by Moslem persecution to migrate to India. The Brahmins are the priests or higher caste of the Hindoos, who, like the Burmese, the inhabitants of the adjacent country, Burmah, claim to be descended from Brahma, the supreme deity of the Hindoo religion. The Buddhists are the followers of Buddha, a Hindoo sage who founded the doctrine of Buddhism in the sixth century b.c. Mahommedanism is the religion founded by Mahommed, or Mahomet (born 571, died 632). The term Koran, or more properly Al Koran, “The Koran,” which constitutes the Bible of the Mahommedans, is Arabic for a “Reading,” a “thing to be read.” The native name of the Mahommedan religion is Islam, resignation and obedience to God, founded upon the verb aslama, to bend, to submit, to surrender. The Mahommedans of Turkey and Persia usually bear the style of Mussulmans, a corruption and the plural of the Arabic muslim, rendered into English as Moslem, and meaning a true believer, or one who holds the faith of Islam.
Our reference to Mahommedanism having carried us some six hundred years beyond the foundation of Christianity by Christ, we must of necessity retrace our steps. Reverting to the Jewish people contemporary with Jesus Christ and His disciples, a certain portion of these styled themselves Pharisees because they affected a greater degree of holiness than their neighbours. The name was derived from the Hebrew word pharash, separated. The Nazarenes, so called after “Jesus of Nazareth,” were a sect of semi-converted Jews, who, while believing Christ to be the long-promised Messiah, and that His nature was Divine as well as human, nevertheless continued the rites and ceremonies peculiar to Judaism. The Gnostics, otherwise the “Knowers,” pursuant to the Greek gnomi, to know, were those who tried to accommodate the Scriptures to the speculations of Plato, Pythagoras, and other ancient philosophers; having done which to their own satisfaction they refused all further knowledge on the subject. The Aquarians (Latin aqua, water) insisted upon the use of water in the place of wine in the Communion. The Arians were the followers of Arius, a presbyter in the Church of Alexandria, universally regarded as the first heretic. Soon after his death (in 336), which was ignominious in the extreme, the Arians renounced their errors, and were readmitted into the Church; but this gave offence to another section of the Christians under Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari, styling themselves the Luciferians, who refused all communication with the reconverted heretics. The Donatists were the followers of Donatus, Bishop of Numidia; the Macedonians, of Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople; the Apollinarians, of Apollinarius, Bishop of Laodicea and Greek Christian philosopher. These various sects arose in the fourth century of the Church.
The term Catholic, derived from the Greek Katholos, compounded out of Kata, throughout, and olos, whole, signifies One, Universal.