IRRELIGIOSITY. - The term is to be understood not only in a privative sense (areligiosity), that is, as the attitude of one who, through habit, practises no religion, but chiefly in a negative sense, insofar as it denotes opposition to religion, whether as a body of truths to be believed and laws to be observed, or as a moral virtue.
Scholasticism preferred the term i. to the Latin irreverentia, because the latter has a broader meaning, denoting irreverence towards God, men, the law, etc. By contrast, i. properly implies irreverence towards God and religion.
Thus, in a strict and specific sense, i. embraces the vices and sins that involve contempt or irreverence directly against God, or against sacred things. To the first class belong the temptation of God and false swearing; after Suárez (cf. De Religione, Lione 1630, tr. III, l. I, cap. 1, n. 8), theologians add blasphemy; to the second class belong sacrilege, simony, superstition and its various forms, namely idolatry, divination, and magic.