The cult is ... The meaning of the word "cult". Religious cult

The Latin word "cultus", from which our "cult" happened, is translated as "worship." If you look closely, you can see that the cult is One of the pillars of human culture in general. Worship before something is very peculiar to our nature, because it creates for us a certain ideal, it gives a goal - this should be striven for.

Cult in ancient times

It can be confidently asserted that a religious cult in any form is already a proof of the existence of an intelligent being in a living being.

After all, for its creation it is necessary to have imagination and logic (even primitive). Later, the person found more and more phenomena that seemed to him stronger than a simple living being. Worship appeared almost to all elements of nature, which could be both useful and harmful to humans - rivers, forests, animals and plants. Therefore, as soon as people ceased to be an animal and acquired certain mental skills, the cult did not slow to appear.

Apparently, the first worship was given to the most precious gift of nature - fire. After all, the storage of the hearth, the extraction of fire, even the simple lighting of the "torch" from the common fire - all this had the form of a ritual. The fire was the first companion of a man who helped him, made his life easier or destroyed everything in his path, if he "angered" him. The traces of the fire cult remained in every mythology of the world - remember at least the legend of Prometheus.

The next stage

However, the cult is a developing tradition. At some point in its existence, a person is faced with the fact that there is a thing absolutely not subject to his explanations, which did not react at all to worship and veneration. She was inevitable. It's Death.

From the very beginning of the intellect in man, he was troubled by the question, what comes after the transition of this face? To himself he could not give an answer. It was then that arose the cult of ancestors. After all, they were already in the next world, they knew what death was. The other ancestors who left the world could help a person in worldly affairs, thanks to their wisdom and osnovedomlennosti.

In order to understand the cult of the dead, it is worth familiarizing with the myths of Scandinavia. It was there, in connection with the importance of the tribal community, the worship of ancestors were a huge part of local ritual ceremonies.

The appearance of myth as a cult

As we found out, initially a cult is worshiping the phenomena (objects) of nature or ancestors. In the second case, a person already appeared in devotion-evil or good, cunning or honest, having a certain character.

Empowering people with inanimate qualities of inanimate objects and even feelings (!) Created a myth. There was a huge pantheon of various gods, each culture has its own. However, the cult of ancestors did not go anywhere with the advent of Zeus, Thor, Ra and other diverse idols.

Its further development is particularly noticeable in China. In the Middle Kingdom, everything, the most insignificant phenomenon and the most inconspicuous thing, according to the ideas of the inhabitants, has a guardian spirit. They also became dead ancestors, sometimes replacing each other or simply patronizing together. Many famous Chinese rulers, scientists and officials "stayed" on the ground after death, helping ordinary people and protecting rivers, houses, settlements, light and rice fields.

Religion

No matter how important it is to realize the existence of God for most of the inhabitants of the Earth, in its pure form, religion is the cult of the Supreme Being, and nothing more. It is the worship of a single, independent and all-powerful being that is central to monotheistic religions.

Religious cult is, besides worshiping God directly, also the allotment of a huge number of artifacts and rituals with a certain sacral, higher meaning. Following these rituals (repentance, communion in Christianity, for example) is one of the main pillars of religion. With the help of them, the Supreme Being can be satisfied, and for non-observance - to anger him.

Religion plays a huge role in the history of mankind - so big that it is difficult to overestimate. In the world faiths (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam), in fact, laid down all the moral standards of behavior for modern man. Religion thus became above the mere cult, which evolved from a frightened admiration into a doctrine, an attempt to bring human life into a fertile order. It is the presence of philosophical tremors and puts religion level higher than the cult.

And if you move away from the sacral?

However, a religious cult is just a point (albeit immense) in the list of people's admiration. Far from always the cult carries in itself a supreme and divine charge, a desire to explain the world. Our world and history, in fact, filled with various options for worship.

One of the most important cults in the history of mankind is the cult of power. He came to us from a brutal animal world, where the presence of force is an indispensable point for survival.

The strongest (alpha) instantly becomes the main one. Without his permission or knowledge, weaker beings can not do anything. However, these same beta and gamma also go one after the other, creating a simple hierarchical ladder, where the weakest (omega) is obliged to worship the strongest.

Such an animal device can be seen well in schools where children have not yet learned to control themselves and throw out all the bestial that remains of our ancestors.

Rational cult

The two most important epochs in the history of mankind have brought yet another cult. It can be called a purely human, devoid of ancestor from the world of cruel nature.

This is the cult of the mind. The presence of rational, logical thinking, thanks to ancient philosophers, is considered the main property of man. The capacity for one's own thought in him is put much higher than the worship of the Higher Beings.

A rational being must set a goal in the knowledge of the world through science, as well as maximum objectivity in his knowledge. The cult of the mind often excludes the very idea of the Divine - simply because we do not see any evidence of the intervention of the Supreme Being in the affairs of people.

In France during the Revolution, this phrase carried an antithesis to the dominant Catholicism. At that time, the cult of Reason became a whole Paris movement aimed at establishing the dictates of science. Its participants broke masses and worship services, destroyed altars, while trying to enlighten the people through reading books.

At some point, the movement was lost in the abyss of revolutionary action. However, the denial of the divine and the emergence of the human mind on the highest pedestal, and the presentation of objectivism as the main good was greatly reflected in the events under the slogan "Freedom! Equality! Brotherhood!"

Cult of personality

A cult is a concept that is propagated for a short period of time. The most vivid example of such a "short" cult is worshiping one person - even during his lifetime.

The cult of personality arises most often as a political effect in the countries of totalitarianism, being the main sign of autocracy. The closest analogue is the religious cult. A person who has managed to gain power is endowed with people with almost divine, magical abilities. Faith in him and his word become unshakable.

However, Sholokhov knowingly once said about the reign of Joseph Stalin: "The cult was. But there was also a personality. " Indeed, as soon as the world has the first extraordinary personality ready to put itself above the rest - a cult has appeared. Alexander the Great became the first deified person in life in the Ancient World. The cult of personality was further developed in ancient Rome: almost every great emperor there was deified, and Gaius Julius Caesar even during his lifetime began to build a temple to himself at the expense of the treasury.

Of great importance was the cult of personality in the twentieth century. Here it becomes the basis for many significant events - the clash of the two cults, Hitler and Stalin, we now call the Great Patriotic War.

Conclusion

It is hard to imagine how a human culture would develop without an ideal that was placed on a pedestal, which it would be worthwhile to strive for. The cult is the most important step in the history of man, which is probably the first on the way to the ideal. Not to the ideal, which is supposed to be worshiped, but to that which one can become.

The presence of a conscious social cult also distinguished man from an animal earlier.