Читать книгу The Origins of Christianity and the New Testament - Rebecca I. Denova - Страница 20

We typically apply the term “cult” negatively to religious ideas that differ radically from the majority. In the ancient world, cultus (from the Latin colere, “care or cultivate”) was a broad term for everything that was involved in the care and maintenance of the gods. It did not indicate theology or spiritual differences. In this text, we use “native” or “ethnic cults” as a category. Then as now criticism of someone else’s “cult” occurred often. We encounter this specifically in New Testament criticisms of the cult of the Temple in Jerusalem.