5th
Two words that some of you might never have thought could be used to describe yourselves
Before our studies of religion get to far behind us, I want to take a moment to point out that there are two words that have been used repeatedly over the past trimester that have additional applications of which you might not be aware.
The first word is religious. As defined at Answers.com, there are three meanings:
1. Having or showing belief in and reverence for God or a deity.
2. Of, concerned with, or teaching religion
3. Extremely scrupulous or conscientious
The first two should be quite familiar to you by now. It is that third meaning, being “extremely scrupulous or conscientous,” that you might use even if you don’t believe in God or practice a religion. You can be religious about anything you dedicate yourself. You might run religiously, making sure to do so every day.
The other word is catholic. Again, let’s look at the Answers.com defintions, but just the first two for now:
1. Of broad or liberal scope; comprehensive: “The 100-odd pages of formulas and constants are surely the most catholic to be found” (Scientific American).
2. Including or concerning all humankind; universal: “what was of catholic rather than national interest” (J.A. Froude).
I often describe my interests as being catholic. When I do, I am suggesting that I am interested in many different topics in many different fields, not that I am interested in a specific denomination of Christianity. Notice that in this instance, catholic is not capitalized. When it is capitalized, then the meaning takes on one of the four subdefinitions of the third definition on Answers.com:
a. Of or involving the Roman Catholic Church.
b. Of or relating to the universal Christian church.
c. Of or relating to the ancient undivided Christian church.
d. Of or relating to those churches that have claimed to be representatives of the ancient undivided church.
That’s the use of the word that has prevailed in our conversations over the past several weeks. There is a relation to the first two definitions, particularly the idea of being universal—one church that is “[o]f, relating to, extending to, or affecting the entire world or all within the world.”
