(_a_) The derivation from _religāre_, “to bind back” (man to God), is negatived by the authority of Cicero and of the best modern etymologists; by the difficulty, on this hypothesis, of explaining such forms as _religio_, _religens_; and by the necessity, in that case, of presupposing a fuller knowledge of sin and redemption than was common to the ancient world. (_b_) The more correct derivation is from _relegĕre_, “to go over again,” “carefully to ponder.” Its original meaning is therefore “reverent observance” (of duties due to the gods). For advocacy of the derivation of _religio_, as meaning “binding duty,” from _religāre_, see Lange, Dogmatik, 1:185-196. This derivation was first proposed by Lactantius, Inst. Div., 4:28, a Christian writer. To meet the objection that the form _religio_ seems derived from a verb of the third conjugation, Lange cites _rebellio_, from _rebellāre_, and _optio_, from _optāre_. But we reply that these verbs of the first conjugation, like many others, are probably derived from obsolete verbs of the third conjugation. For the derivation favored in the text, see Curtius, Griechische Etymologie, 5te Aufl., 364; Fick, Vergl. Wörterb. der indoger. Spr., 2:227; Vanicek, Gr.-Lat. Etym. Wörterb., 2:829; Andrews, Latin Lexicon, _in voce_; Nitzsch, System of Christ. Doctrine, 7; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 75-77; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 1:6; Kahnis, Dogmatik, 3:18; Menzies, History of Religion, 11; Max Müller, Natural Religion, lect. 2. 2. False Conceptions. (_a_) Religion is not, as Hegel declared, a kind of knowing; for it would then be only an incomplete form of philosophy, and the measure of knowledge in each case would be the measure of piety.