Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm now generally referred to an enthusiasm or passion for anything, increased joy in certain topics or actions, an extreme commitment to a cause or a more than average, intense interest in a particular field.

His origin after the term originally referred to the inspiration of a divine inspiration or through the influence or presence of God ( since the 16th century in the German detectable Latinized borrowing of the Greek ἐνθουσιασμός, enthousiasmos, originally " possession by God," one of Abstraktums ἔνθεος, Entheos, literally " the god of Satisfied ", from ἐν, en, "in" and θεός, theos, "god" ).

History of Religion

Originally meant by an enthusiast one of a god possessed person. In ancient Greece enthousiasmos was an expression of a divine possession: For Apollo, the oracular Pythia, with Dionysus and the Bacchantes and Maenads, the term " enthusiasm " is also used in a figurative or figurative sense. So Socrates speaks of the inspiration of the poet as a form of enthusiasm. He uses the term in a religious sense, but distinguishes it from an extreme religious zeal or an exaggerated or false belief in religious inspiration.

Followers of a Syrian sect of the 4th century was called " enthusiasts ". They believed that man could obtain through unceasing prayer, ascetic practices and meditation inspired by the Holy Spirit, regardless of the ruling powers of evil, which he has been subject since the Fall. The Euchiten are known for their enthusiastic belief in the efficacy of prayer.

Several Protestant groups of the 16th and 17th century were in their religious zeal than enthusiastic. Lord Shaftesbury's influential letter A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm ( 1708) challenges the sectarian practices of the French Camisard and against any form of religious fanaticism. At the same time it refers to a nobler form of " enthusiasm " in light of the divinely ordered, harmonious nature. In the 18th century it was called in England and North America, popular Methodists such as John Wesley and George Whitefield pejoratively as " enthusiasts ", which meant in the former parlance: blind religious fanatics.

Presence

In the 18th century, the meaning of the word is general and secular: In today's common parlance, the enthusiasm has lost its special religious significance and rather denotes an unrestricted, emotional and personal commitment to an ideal or a common cause. The special effort with which one pursues certain objectives is described by the term. Sometimes, the term pejoratively an overly partisan devotion and a radical authoritarian dogmatism which all difficulties and objections raised against him closes.

Also, the term passion, a translation of Philip of Zesen from the Latin word passio, it can now commonly used as a synonym of this concept of understanding " enthusiasm ".