Impiety is a lack of proper concern for the obligations owed to cult; that is, to the outward practices of a belief system. Impiety was a main Pagan objection to Christianity, for unlike other initiates into mystery religions, early Christians refused to cast a pinch of incense before the images of the gods, among whom were the protective deified Emperors. Impiety in ancient civilizations was a civic concern, rather than religious. It was believed that it could bring down upon the whole res publica the wrath of the tutelary gods who protected the polis. Impiety is not a Christian phenomenon. Socrates and Anaxagoras were put to death for impiety (against ancient Greek gods), and Aristotle was also charged with impiety after the death of Alexander the Great. According to the Vita Aristotelis Marciana, a much mutilated single manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale di San Marco in Venice, written about 1300, Aristotle left the city, sa

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z # TAGS