Enthusiasm

{{Short description|Intense enjoyment, interest or approval towards something}} {{other uses|Enthusiasm (disambiguation)}} {{Redirect|Enthusiast|other uses|Enthusiast (disambiguation)}} {{Redirect|Oomph|the rock band|Oomph!}} thumb|262px|Men reacting enthusiastically {{Emotion}}

In modern usage, "'''enthusiasm'''" refers to intense enjoyment, interest, or approval expressed by a person. The term is allegedly related to playfulness, inventiveness, optimism, zest, verve, and high energy.<ref>{{Cite book |last1= Daniels |first1= D. |last2= Price |first2= V. |title= The Essential Enneagram |place= New York |publisher= HarperCollins |isbn= 0-06-251676-0 |year= 2000 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/essentialenneagr00dani |page=64}}</ref>{{qn|date=August 2025}} People can often characterise the modern version of enthusiasm as "infectious" or "contagious",<ref> [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=infectious+enthusiasm%2C+contagious+enthusiasm&year_start=1700&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 Chart of historical usage of the English phrases "infectious enthusiasm" and "contagious enthusiasm"] </ref> and sometimes even more metaphorically as a virus in its own right.<ref> {{cite book |last1 = Heppell |first1 = Michael |date = 27 September 2012 |chapter = Don't Curb Your Enthusiasm |title = The Edge: How the Best Get Better |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5kU5AgAAQBAJ |publication-place = London |publisher = Hodder & Stoughton |page = https://books.google.com/books?id=5kU5AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT35 |isbn = 9781444740639 |access-date = 26 August 2025 |quote = Enthusiasm is a virtuous virus; you can't spread it unless you've got it. You can infect people with your enthusiasm [...]. }} </ref>

The word once applied, in accordance with its etymology,<ref> {{oed | enthusiasm}} </ref> to persons possessed by a god, or to people who exhibited intense piety.

==Historical usage== [[File:Camp meeting of the Methodists in N. America J. Milbert del M. Dubourg sculp (cropped).jpg|thumb|Methodist preachers have been known for their enthusiasm in promulgating the doctrines of the new birth and entire sanctification to the public at events such as tent revivals and camp meetings, which they believe is the reason that God raised them up into existence.<ref name="Gibson">{{cite web|url=https://ucmpage.org/sgca/wesley01.htm|title=Wesleyan Heritage Series: Entire Sanctification|last=Gibson|first=James|publisher=South Georgia Confessing Association|language=en|access-date=30 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529053529/http://ucmpage.org/sgca/wesley01.htm|archive-date=29 May 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>]] The word ''enthusiasm'' originates from the Greek {{lang|grc|ἐνθουσιασμός}} from {{lang|grc|ἐν}} ({{transliteration|grc|en}}, 'in') and {{lang|grc|θεός}} ({{transliteration|grc|theós}}, 'god'), meaning 'inspired or possessed by [a] god'. Applied by the Greeks to manifestations of divine possession, by Apollo (as in the case of the Pythia), or by Dionysus (as in the case of the Bacchantes and Maenads), the term enthusiasm was also used in a transferred or figurative sense. Socrates taught that the inspiration of poets is a form of enthusiasm.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Shelton |first1=Matthew James |title=Madness in Socratic Philosophy Xenophon, Plato and Epictetus |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/196582649.pdf |publisher=University of St Andrews |access-date=16 May 2021 |page=9 |year=2019|degree=PhD}}</ref> The term was confined to a belief in religious inspiration, or to intense religious fervor or emotion.

From this, a Syrian sect of the fourth century was known as the Enthusiasts. They believed that "by perpetual prayer, ascetic practices, and contemplation, man could become inspired by the Holy Spirit, in spite of the ruling evil spirit, which the fall had given to him". From their belief in the efficacy of prayer, they were also known as Euchites.<ref name="Brackney2012">{{cite book |last1=Brackney |first1=William H. |title=Historical dictionary of radical Christianity |year=2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=978-0810871793 |page=117}}</ref>

Several Protestant Christian denominations that emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially those who hold revivals, were called enthusiastic.<ref name="Brackney2012"/>

=== Pejorative use === During the years that immediately followed the Glorious Revolution, "enthusiasm" was a British pejorative term for advocacy of any political or religious cause in public, i.e. fanaticism. Such "enthusiasm" was seen in the time around 1700 as the cause of the previous century's English Civil War and its attendant atrocities, and thus it was an absolute social sin to remind others of the war by engaging in enthusiasm. The Royal Society bylaws stipulated that any person discussing religion or politics at a Society meeting was to be summarily ejected for being an "enthusiast."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williamson |first1=George |title=The Restoration Revolt against Enthusiasm |journal=Studies in Philology |year=1933 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=571–603 |jstor=4625155 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4625155 |issn=0039-3738}}</ref>

During the 18th century, popular Methodists such as John Wesley or George Whitefield were accused of blind enthusiasm, a charge against which they defended themselves by distinguishing fanaticism from "religion of the heart." Methodists who enthusiastically preach about and experience the new birth (first work of grace) and entire sanctification (second work of grace) often have emotional experiences.<ref name="Gibson" /><ref name="Brackney2012" />

==See also== *{{annotated link|Artistic inspiration}} *{{annotated link|Connoisseur}} *{{annotated link|Emotional contagion}} *{{annotated link|Entheogen}} *{{annotated link|Euphoria}} *{{annotated link|Fan (person)}} *{{annotated link|Flow (psychology)}} *{{annotated link|Motivation}} *{{annotated link|Zest (positive psychology)}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book|first=Joshua|last=Grooms|title=Enthusiasm: A Study in Project Management|location=London|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} * {{cite book | last=Knox | first=Ronald Arbuthnott | author-link=Ronald Knox| title=Enthusiasm: a chapter in the history of religion, with special reference to the XVII and XVIII centuries | publisher=Oxford University Press | publication-place=New York | year=1950 | oclc=1542527}} * {{cite book|author-link=John Locke|first=John|last=Locke|title=An Essay Concerning Human Understanding|volume=2}} * {{cite book | last=Tucker | first=Susie I. | title=Enthusiasm: A Study in Semantic Change | publisher=Cambridge University Press | publication-place=Cambridge [Eng.] | year=1972 | isbn=978-0-521-08263-1}}

==External links== {{Wiktionary}} {{Commons category}} {{wikiquote}} *[https://web.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/hume.superstition.html David Hume, Of Superstition and Enthusiasm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913184442/https://web.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/hume.superstition.html |date=2024-09-13 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20061229084622/http://www.ronaldknoxsociety.com/enthus.html The Ronald Knox Society of North America] (archived 29 December 2006) *[https://web.archive.org/web/20121230030647/http://www.umcmission.org/Find-Resources/Global-Worship-and-Spiritual-Growth/John-Wesley-Sermons/Sermon-37-The-Nature-of-Enthusiasm John Wesley's Sermon, "The Nature of Enthusiasm"] (archived 30 December 2012)

Category:Emotions Category:Positive mental attitude Category:Spirit possession Category:Optimism