Superstition
idea · 5 works · 5 mentions · 8 anchored passages
superstition · deisidaimonia · dread of religion
in the texts
On Moral Ends
Irrational religious fear, especially of divine punishment, said to be dispelled by understanding the nature of things.
and then superstition, with which whoever is imbued can never be at peace.
And when the nature of all things is known, we are relieved of superstition, freed from the fear of death, not troubled by ignorance of things — out of which itself dreadful terrors often arise.
Thus from physics is drawn fortitude against the fear of death, and steadfastness against the dread of religion, and calm of mind, when ignorance of all hidden things is removed, and moderation, when the kinds of desires have been set forth;
On the Nature of the Gods
Empty fear of the gods, distinguished from true religion, both of which are undermined by theories denying divine power.
For the opinions of all these not only do away with superstition, in which there is an empty fear of the gods, but also with religion, which consists in the pious worship of the gods.
Protrepticus
Clement's central target: the human institution of religious fear and idol/temple worship, traced to a historical origin and shown as self-destructive.
By now even the superstitious themselves are seen, unwillingly indeed, yet still perceiving the error about the gods.
Reasonably, then, did superstition, having got its beginning from somewhere, become a fountain of senseless wickedness;
And again, in those very straits, the superstitious, the worshippers of stones, having learned in fact not to reverence insensible matter, perish through superstition, overcome by the very want it cannot relieve;
Stromata
Credulous fear of omens and reliance on ritual purifications, mocked at length.
Many fear also the inscriptions that are set up.
4.25. Well too did Diogenes say to the man who marvelled that he had found the serpent coiled about the pestle: "Do not marvel; for that would have been the stranger thing, had you seen the pestle coiled about the upright serpent." For the irrational animals too must run and dart, fight, bring forth, and die—things which, being according to nature for them, could never be contrary to nature for us …
4.24. Reasonably, then, the superstitious, becoming credulous about those easily moved to anger, take all that befalls them to be signs and causes of evils. If a mouse should dig through an altar that is made of clay, or, having nothing else, should gnaw through a bag; if a fowl that is being reared should crow at evening—they set this down as a sign of something. Menander mocks just such a man in …
Ad Nationes
The category ('superstition') under which opponents classify Christian identity as distinct from nationhood.
But it is by superstition that we are reckoned a third race, not by nation, so that there are Romans, Jews, and then Christians.