Posted by giveawayboy on July 11, 2003 at 05:59:55:
In Reply to: Religio posted by Març on July 11, 2003 at 05:40:18:
ever since Steve talked about religio, in my mind I immediately thought about "Ligar" (a Spanish verb)
but I wanted to look it up in my "pequeño Larousse Ilustrado" (a dictionary) and it means (just what it means to me) to bind or tie (or hold), and of course it comes from the Latin "Ligare", to bind, now the Spanish noun "Liga" in one sense means league, but it also means like strings that tie, or esp. in Mexico, according to the dictionary, a rubber band.
Religion from re-ligio, Latin verb ligare to bind (cf.ligament) Re-binding. What one is bound to. What one is dependent on;(I copied this part from "Religion:The Search for Meaning Relig 6110", a web page.)
Thanks for this excellent word study.
I realized that this is also a good example of the 'semantics' Steve mentioned last night in class. In a sense when certain modern Christians say 'religion is 'bondage' their words express a truth about the nature of religion although they may mean something totally different by the word 'religion' than someone who is engaging the study of religion in general. Also, their understanding of 'bondage' would not mean 'to bind or to bind back', but it would imply a person or people 'being bound' as in 'not being free'.