impiety

     

Impiety is a lack of proper concern for the obligations owe 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.

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