Classically speaking, The term Religion has been etymologically defined by Augustine and Lactantius as re (Latin: again) + legare (Latin: connect).12 Synergestically, these may be construed as reconnection. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11.1). In this usage, “Faith (Koine Greek: pistis [πίστις]) may be literally construed as trust that can not be disproved.3 Further, it connotes an objective internal state of belief and disbelief, with conviction being asserted on the part of belief. Accurately understood, then, Faith is an internal individual state of convicted belief and religion is an external collective expression of individual internal states.
Being that the literal meaning of the word “religion” is drawn from a sociological context, when studying sects and cults it may be useful to consider the meaning of the term “religion” within this context. As such, much empirically sound research within the field of sociology has thoroughly asserted that the measurement of religious exercise is best suited to correlational measures being undertaken with “ideal types” serving as a baseline.4 It has been further asserted that Attributional measures would more accurately identify an organization or individual defined as religious.5 the construct of religion may be best understood as “super-empirical” evidentiary metacognition.6 As such, it may be methodologically most expedient to evaluate Faith trough measures of behaviorally dichotomous religious expression and Pearson “R” correlation coefficients of attitudinal surveys of internal states.
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3Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for pistis (Strong's 4102)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2010. 20 Jun 2010. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?
strongs=G4102 >.
4Weber, Max. The Methodology of the Social Sciences. Glencoe: The Free Press. 1949.
5Stark, Rodney, and William Sims Bainbridge. "Of Churches, Sects, and Cults: Preliminary Concepts for a Theory of Religious Movements." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 18, no. 2 (June 1979): 117-131. SocINDEX with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed June 20, 2010).
6Ibidem.
Transliterational meaning is only ever accurately understood when viewed through literal, grammatical, historical, and contextual paradigms. As the modern (or postmodern) reader is not the initial audience addressed in epistemic salutation, all application is allegorical in nature.
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