That which brings moral reprobation can be mentioned as anathema.
The etymology of anathema takes us to a word from the Greek language that can be translated as "curse" or "offering" , according to the context. The term, thus, has several uses.
The first meaning mentioned by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) in its dictionary refers to excommunication : the act that consists of removing a person from a community of faithful, preventing them from accessing the sacraments.
The anathema as condemnation
The anathema, in this sense, is associated with a condemnation : the subject is separated or isolated from the group to which he belonged, as a punishment. In ancient times, the anathema did not only include the excommunication of the heretic, but the person was also sent into exile and was the object of a curse.
Whoever was subjected to the anathema received a life sentence. The anathematized subject, in the Old Testament , was condemned to extermination since he was considered the object of a curse from God .
In the context of Christianity, the term anathema should be understood as someone who is "cursed", and who must remain "outside the Church." This form of condemnation is the highest that a sinner can receive, since not only is he excluded from the sacraments but the sanction lasts forever, as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
In Ancient Greece, an anathema was an action that allowed the gods to be honored.
That which is morally condemned
That which draws moral reprobation is also mentioned as anathema. Fascism , for example, can be considered anathema today. This ideology developed by the Italian Benito Mussolini in the first half of the 20th century was based on a totalitarian State, with a strong nationalist component and the exercise of violence against opponents.
The application of fascism caused thousands of deaths: that is why today it is anathema. If a person defines himself as a fascist, he will soon receive criticism for his position and could even be reported to justice if it is understood that, with his behavior , he incites some type of crime.
The anathema, an offering
As indicated at the beginning of the article, this term has several meanings, and not all of them have negative connotations. In recent times, the language has once again linked it with benevolent issues, and this leads us to its definition as " offering to the gods", the meaning it supposedly originally received according to ancient Greek studies.
The deviation of the meaning of this word began when it was used to translate herem , a term of Hebrew origin meaning "off limits, forgotten, cursed, taboo ." This occurred during the making of the Septuagint Bible , a translation of the oldest Aramaic and Hebrew texts. In this context, herem was used to describe offerings to God or objects that were apart from religion, and confusion arose when anathema was used in both cases.
If we look at Ancient Greece, the anathema was any practice or object that was reserved to honor the gods in a temple , or that had a sacred nature. In this way we can find the term as a synonym for "gifts to the Lord" and "votive offerings" in some ancient texts.
Since the word herem has in its meaning the duality of "consecrate or deliver with fervor and affection" and "exterminate", over time it adopted the idea of "exterminating idolatrous people", and this wide range of nuances, some of them contradictory, went on to the definition of anathema. In this way, the term began to be used to describe objects and people who undoubtedly indulged in the mundane and, therefore, had to be destroyed.