IRRELIGION. - The term is to be understood not only in a privative sense (areligiosity), that is, as the attitude of one who by habit practices no religion, but principally in a negative sense, inasmuch 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 toward God, men, the law, etc. I., on the other hand, properly implies irreverence toward God and religion.

Therefore, in a strict and specific sense, i. embraces the vices and sins that contain contempt or irreverence against God directly, or against sacred things. To the first class belong the tempting of God and false swearing; after Suárez (cf. De Religione, Lyon 1630, tr. III, l. I, ch. 1, n. 8) theologians add blasphemy; to the second class belong sacrilege, simony, superstition and its various forms, namely idolatry, divination and magic.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, qq. 92, 97; A. Ballerini, Opus theologicum morale, II, 2nd ed., Prato 1899, n. 369; D. M. Prümmer, Manuale theologiae moralis, II, 8th ed., Freiburg im Br. 1936, n. 500.

Vincenzo Carbone

@incollection{ec7_irreligiosita, author = {Carbone, Vincenzo}, title = {Irreligiosità}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {223}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/irreligiosita} }

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Irreligion

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