divine polity

divine polity (usually uncountable, plural divine polities)

But it cannot be expected that the Clergy […] should upon this Revolution by contented to cry peccavi [I have sinned], and openly recant all their former Doctrines of Divine Polity by a hearty active Conformity to your Majesty’s rightful Title and Government.

1698, William Stephens, “A Letter to his most excellent Majesty King William III. […]”, in A Collection of State Tracts, Published During the Reign of King William III, volume 2, published 1706, page 634:

The Divine polity, under which they had hitherto lived, was distasteful to the carnal affections of man: they reject the Lord God of Israel, and exclaim, “Nay, but set a king over us.”

1849, Alfred J. Carver, The Divine Attribute of Mercy as Deduced from the Old Testament, published 1851, page 49:

Let them affirm their unyielding determination to stand, firmly and unreservedly, for the way of Bahá’u’lláh, to avoid the entanglements and bickerings inseparable from the pursuits of the politician, and to become worthy agencies of the Divine Polity which incarnates God’s immutable Purpose for all men.

1936 March 11, Shoghi Effendi, “The Divine Polity”, in The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: Selected Letters, published 1991, →ISBN, page 65:

(chiefly Christianity, theology) A government or system of governance (especially of a church) said to be instituted by God.


Divine Providence

(theology) The sovereignty, superintendence, or agency of God over events in people's lives and throughout history.


two-spirit

Paul's grasp of the [Holy] Spirit as the sign of the erupting messianic age is at odds with the two-spirit thought of Qumran which never became incompatible with law observance.

1957, The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press [for the Harvard Divinity School], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 133:

(theology) Involving two spirits; especially, pertaining to the doctrine of dualism espoused in the so-called Treatise on the Two Spirits in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

kahden sielun

involving two spirits; especially, pertaining to the doctrine of dualism


Olympian

From Late Middle English Olympyan, from Latin Olympius (“of or relating to Mount Olympus”) and its etymon Ancient Greek Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos, “of or relating to Mount Olympus; living on Mount Olympus; Olympian”) + English -an (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, or forming agent nouns). Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos) is derived from Ὄλῠμπος (Ólŭmpos, “Mount Olympus”) (from Pre-Greek) + -ῐος (-ĭos, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).

affix

(philosophy and theology) In the Platonist theology of Plethon, a god in one group of supercelestial gods, the other group of such gods being the Tartareans or Titans.


federalist

federalists (plural)
fœderalist (alternative)

/ˈfɛdəɹəlˌɪst/


scandal of particularity

Calque of German Ärgernis der Einmaligkeit

calque

1994: A materialism […] was supposed to be what science favoured: and the ‘scandal of particularity’, God becoming incarnate in Christ in human history, was indeed regarded as a scandal — that is, absurd — by contemporary intellectuals. — Richard Swinburne, Reason and the Christian Religion (Oxford 1994, p. 1)

2006: Reformed theologians look to the scandal of particularity as a way of naming how the unknowable God is known to us. — Cynthia L Rigby, ‘Scandalous Presence’, Feminist and Womanist Essays in Reformed Dogmatics (John Knox 2006, p. 59)

(theology) The paradox inherent in the idea of a particular individual human (Jesus of Nazareth) incarnating the eternal divine God.


propitiation

en-noun

propitiation (countable and uncountable, plural propitiations)

From Latin propitiātiō. By surface analysis, propitiate + -ion.

(theology) The death of Christ as a basis for the forgiveness of sin.


epikeia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐπιείκεια (epieíkeia, “reasonableness”).

bor

(philosophy, theology) The principle in ethics that a law can be broken to achieve a greater good.


particularity

en-noun

particularity (countable and uncountable, plural particularities)

From Middle French particularité (“part of a whole; something particular, particularity”) (modern French particularité), and from its etymon Late Latin particularitas (“fact or quality of being particular; something particular, particularity”), from Latin particulāris (“particular; partial”) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being). Particulāris is derived from particula (“particle, small part”) (from pars (“a part, piece, portion, share”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *perh₃- (“to provide, produce, beget”)) + -cula (diminutive suffix)) + -āris (suffix denoting a relationship, forming adjectives). The English word is analysable as particular + -ity (suffix forming nouns from adjectives, referring to the properties, qualities, or states of what is denoted by the adjectives).

suffix

The condition of being particular rather than general or universal; specificity.

(Christianity, theology) The doctrine of the incarnation of God as Jesus occurring at a particular place and time.

partikularismi

(Christianity, Judaism, theology, obsolete) Synonym of particularism (“the principle that only certain people are chosen by God for salvation”).


real presence

(theology) The actual presence of Christ's body and blood in the Eucharistic sacrament.


pronoia

en-noun

pronoia (countable and uncountable, plural pronoiae or pronoiai or pronoias)

pronoiae (plural)
pronoiai (plural)
pronoias (plural)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πρόνοιᾰ (prónoiă, “foreknowledge, foresight; providence; form of land grant”), from πρόνοος (prónoos, “careful, prudent”) + -ῐᾰ (-ĭă, suffix forming nouns). πρόνοος is derived from προ- (pro-, prefix indicating a coming forth) + νόος (nóos, “the mind; act of the mind”). The English word is cognate with Latin pronoea (“providence”).
The plural form pronoiae is probably a modification of Latin pronoeae, while pronoiai is from Ancient Greek πρόνοιαι (prónoiai).

der

Now Providence (which the Greekes call Pronoia) is an intellectuall knowledge, both fore-ſeeing, caring for, and ordering all things, and doth not onely behold all paſt, all present, and all to come, but is the cauſe of their ſo being, which Preſcience (ſimply taken) is not: and therefore Providence by the Philoſophers (ſaith S. Auguſtine) is divided into Memory, Knowledge, and Care: […]

1614, Walter Raleigh, “Of the Creation, and Preservation of the World”, in The Historie of the World. In Five Bookes. […], London: Printed for Walter Bvrre, →OCLC, § XIII (Of Providence), page 15:

[page 320] 'And make no provision for the flesh.' [Romans 13:14] 'Provision.' [footnote: Προνοια.] The word implies a forecasting of the mind; and the prohibition therefore is against all deliberation or devising of means or expedients for the gratification of our lusts. […] [page 321] He is a confirmed and advanced learner in the school of wickedness, who can thus in his cooler moments bestow care and calculation on such an enterprise, and in short make a study of the likeliest methods for securing to himself te enjoyment of unhallowed pleasures; and this is the pronoia, the unholy providence, if it may be so termed, on which our text lays its interdict. But it is not against all pronoia, all respect to things future, even though the futurities of this life, that the Bible warns us.

1836–1842, Thomas Chalmers, “Lecture XCIV: Romans, xiii, 11–14”, in Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans (The Works of Thomas Chalmers; 25), volume IV, Glasgow: William Collins, […]; London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., →OCLC, pages 320–321:

The development of the Roman State, therefore, a world-process whose magnitude is truly wonderful, was not brought about as though a drifting mass of elements, by some outward force or inherent affinity became consolidated to revolve at random without any end or aim in that divine pronoia under which the ages move.

1869 January, E. E. Higbee, “Art IV.—The Christian Conception of History.”, in T. G. Apple, editor, The Mercersburg Review; an Organ for Christological, Historical and Positive Theology, volume XVI, Philadelphia, Pa.: Reformed Church Publication Board, […], →OCLC, page 101:

The earlier history of the concept of providence is to be seen in the emergence, from Diogenes to Aristotle, of a notion of an intelligent purpose (telos, q.v.) operating in the universe. In all of these thinker it is clearly associated with the intelligent God whose features begin to appear in the later Plato (see Laws 899 where the denial of pronoia is reckoned blasphemy) and in Aristotle. For the Stoics the immanent Logos governs all by nous and pronoia (D.L. vii, 138; SVF i, 176).

1967, F[rancis] E[dward] Peters, “prónoia: forethought, providence”, in Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon, New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, →OCLC, paragraph 1, page 164:

(philosophy, theology) Divine providence, foreknowledge, foresight.

πρόνοια

divine providence, foreknowledge, foresight — see also foreknowledge, providence


hermeneutic

Derived from Ancient Greek ἑρμηνευτικός (hermēneutikós, “of or for interpreting”), from Ancient Greek ἑρμηνεύς (hermēneús, “interpreter”).

ἑρμηνευτικός

der+

ἑρμηνευτικός

m+

(humanities, theology) Having to do with hermeneutics; that explains, interprets, illustrates or elucidates texts, especially holy texts.

hermeneutico

that explains, interprets, illustrates or elucidates a text


hermeneutic

der

ἑρμηνευτικός

der+

ἑρμηνευτικός

The hermeneutics of suspicion needs to be balanced by a hermeneutic that is grounded in the recognition that written texts represent valid expressions of their author's intent, and that principles may be established that would guide the reader to that intent.

1995 September 27, G. D. Robinson, “Paul Ricoeur and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion: A Brief Overview and Critique”, in Premise, volume II, number 8, page 12:

(humanities, theology) A particular theory of hermeneutics; a particular method of interpretation of text, especially holy texts.


nontrinitarianism

(theology) The religious belief that rejects the Christian concept of the trinity.


hominization

en-noun

hominization (usually uncountable, plural hominizations)

hominizations (plural)
hominisation (alternative UK)

From Latin homo (“human being”) + -ization.

(theology) The beginning of human life, or of a deity's life in human form.


ontological argument

ontological argument (plural ontological arguments)

(philosophy, theology) A type of argument which maintains that the existence of God can be deduced from an analysis of the concept of God.


teleological argument

teleological argument (plural teleological arguments)

(philosophy, theology) A type of argument for the existence of God, stating that orderliness of nature is evidence of design, therefore also of a designer.


argument from design

argument from design (plural arguments from design)

teleological argument
teleological argument


first cause

first causes (plural)
First Cause (alternative)

(theology, philosophy, sometimes capitalized) An initial cause from which all other causes and effects follow.


primum mobile

primum mobile (plural primum mobiles or prima mobilia)

primum mobiles (plural)
prima mobilia (plural)

From Middle English primum mobile (“outermost celestial sphere causing other spheres to move”), borrowed from Medieval Latin prīmum mōbile (literally “first mover”), a calque of Arabic مُحَرِّك أَوَّل (muḥarrik ʔawwal, “first mover”), which is itself a calque of Ancient Greek τὸ πρῶτον κινῆσαν (tò prôton kinêsan, “prime mover”).

ref

From Petrus Apianus, Gemma Frisius (1539) Petri Apiani cosmographia, per Gemmam Phrysium, apud Louanienses medicum ac mathematicum insignem, restituta: additis de adem re ipsius Gemmae Phry. libellis, ut sequens pagina docet, Antwerp: In pingui gallina Arnoldo Berckma[n]no [Arnold Birckmann], →OCLC.

calque

مُحَرِّك أَوَّل

der

τὸ πρῶτον κινῆσαν

Have we got among our primum mobiles the force of such elastic vapours as be generated for the purpose out of nonelastic substances, and are not incondensible? A good magazine of vitr[iolic] acid and powder'd marble would not only save the expence of air in feeding fire, but generate heat.

1779 January 20–22, Jeremy Bentham, “302: To Samuel Bentham: 20–22 January 1779 (Aet 30)”, in Timothy L[auro] S[quire] Sprigge, editor, The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham (The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham), volumes 2 (1777–80), London: UCL Press, published 2017, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 219–220:

[M]otion is transferred and modified; by none of them produced:—in all of them motion finds a channel; in none of them [...] a source. [...] [W]hat are the several sources of motion, and what are the corresponding prime movers, or primum mobiles?

1815, [Jeremy Bentham], “Table 1. I.—Notes to the Advantages.”, in Chrestomathia: Being a Collection of Papers, Explanatory of the Design of an Institution, Proposed to be Set on Foot, under the Name of the Chrestomathic Day School, or Chrestomathic School, […], London: Printed for Messrs. Payne and Foss, […], and J. Ridgway, […]; by J. M‘Creery, […], →OCLC, pages 24–25:

The Universal Goddess, the World Mother, is among the oldest, "longest-winded," of the great supporting divinities known to the myths of the world. [...] For just because she is the Great Mother, so was she there before anything else. She is the primum mobile, the first beginning, the material matrix out of which all came forth.

1956, Heinrich Zimmer, “On the Siprā Shore”, in Joseph Campbell, editor, The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul’s Conquest of Evil (Bollingen Series; XI), 2nd edition, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, published 1993 (10th printing), →ISBN, part II (Four Episodes from the Romance of the Goddess), page 311:

(chiefly philosophy, theology) The prime mover or first cause (“an initial cause from which all other causes and effects follow”).

起因

prime mover or first cause — see also prime mover


partialism

en-noun

partialism (countable and uncountable, plural partialisms)

(Christianity, theology) The doctrine that the three persons of the Trinity are each three parts of God; in other words, each one thirds of God.

(Christianity, theology) The doctrine that Christ's atonement was made for only a part of humanity.


apodictic

en-adj

apodictic (comparative more apodictic, superlative most apodictic)

more apodictic (comparative)
most apodictic (superlative)
apodeictic (alternative)

From the Latin apodīcticus (“proving clearly”, “demonstrative”), from the Ancient Greek ἀποδεικτικός (apodeiktikós, “affording proof”, “demonstrative”), from ἀποδείκνυμι (apodeíknumi, “I demonstrate”). In turn, from ἀπο- (apo-, “separate, without”), and δεικτικός (deiktikós, “capable of proof”).

uder

ἀποδεικτικός

(Biblical studies, theology) Absolute and without explanation, as in a command from God like "Thou shalt not kill!"


structurality

en-noun

structurality (countable and uncountable, plural structuralities)

(philosophy, theology) The qualities or types of the structure or structures an object possesses.


tropology

tropology (countable and uncountable, plural tropologies)

From Late Latin tropologia, from Late Greek τροπολογία (tropología), equivalent to trope + -ology.

Where the syntax of propositions is broken, we see a very general principle of tropology that grants a priori that things like texts are replacements of things like authors.

1993, Miguel Tamen, Manners of Interpretation: The Ends of Argument in Literary Studies, page 58:

He must distinguish the historical information from the allegory, divide the allegory from the tropology, and separate the tropology from the anagogy.

2009, Geoffrey Grossus, The Life of Blessed Bernard of Tiron, page 58:

A similar story can be told for White's tropology. Tropology also is something that “the mind brings” to (past) reality and that is not part of the past itself.

2009, Frank Ankersmit, “2: White's "New Neo-Kantianism": Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics”, in Frank Ankersmit, Ewa Domanska, Hans Kellner, editors, Re-Figuring Hayden White, page 37:

(theology, philosophy) The interpretation of scripture or other work in order to educe moral or figurative meaning; a treatise of such interpretation.


physicotheology

physicotheology (countable and uncountable, plural physicotheologies)

physicotheologies (plural)
physico-theology (alternative)

What else can be concluded, but that all was made with magnificent Design, and that all the whole Structure is the Work of some intelligent Being; some Artist, of Power and Skill equivalent to such a Work?

1713, William Derham, Physico-Theology, or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation, 5th ed. (1720), London, book I, p. 36

We have been rather severe in the foregoing observations on Dr. Büchner's work, because it belongs to a school of physico-theology, which, whether on the affirmative or negative side, we hold to be equally opposed to the true interests of science.

1865, “Büchner's Force and Matter”, in Anthropological Review, volume 3, number 8, page 28:

Indeed, Creation, like a number of passages in The Seasons, furnishes excellent examples of physicotheology, helpfully defined by Harry Solomon as "the use of the scientific examination of nature to establish and raise admiration for the existence and providence of God."

1989, Thomas B. Gilmore, “Implicit Criticism of Thomson's 'Seasons' in Johnson's 'Dictionary'”, in Modern Philology, volume 86, number 3, page 269:

Some claim that Kant's discussion amounts to a refutation of physicotheology and thus does not result in an argument from design.

2002, “Abstracts of Colloquium Papers: 'On Kant's Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God' by Martin Schönfeld”, in Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, volume 75, number 3, page 127:

(philosophy, theology, dated) The view that evidence and sound arguments for God's existence can be derived from a study of the natural world; a study of the natural world intended to provide such evidence.


civilist

From Medieval Latin civilista, from Latin cīvīlis (“civil (law)”), on the pattern of Medieval Latin canonista (“canonist”), from Latin canōn (“rule”).

(obsolete, theology) One who rejects the moral authority of Christ but who nevertheless adheres to a moral code in line with “civil righteousness” and “good citizenship”.


dogmatics

(theology) The systematic study of dogmata.


supernature

supernature (countable and uncountable, plural supernatures)

/ˈsuːpəˌneɪt͡ʃə/

/ˌsuːpəˈneɪt͡ʃə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-supernature.wav

It is the most commont and grossest blunders of scientific diminutives, to imagine that all in nature is of nature. There are more excellent natures. We ascend the height of argument by means of supernatures. These supernatures are, so to speak, natural manifestations or degrees of the supernatural.

1881, Joseph William Reynolds, The Mystery of Miracles, page 365:

These peripheral ghosts earn large amounts of money in the streets, and the money they make is a convertible currency in the sense that it enables a contest of power with other higher social classes in supernature.

2008, Heonik Kwon, Ghosts of War in Vietnam, →ISBN, pages 151–152:

(theology, philosophy) A supernatural realm beyond or apart from the physical world.


isagogic

en-adj

isagogic (comparative more isagogic, superlative most isagogic)

more isagogic (comparative)
most isagogic (superlative)


patrology

en-noun

patrology (countable and uncountable, plural patrologies)

(theology) the study of the lives and works (especially the writings) of the Church Fathers.


logological

/ˌlɒɡ.əʊˈlɒd͡ʒ.ɪk.əl/

(theology, philosophy, rare) Of or pertaining to the doctrine of logos.

logologinen

theology: of or pertaining to the doctrine of logos


proprium

Man of himself, so far as he is under the influence of his proprium, is worse than the brutes. If man should be led by his own proprium, he could not possibly be saved.

1758, Emanuel Swedenborg, The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine:


diatessaron

diatessaron (plural diatessarons or diatessara)

diatessarons (plural)
diatessara (plural)

From Latin, from Ancient Greek διά (diá, “through, across”) + τεσσάρων (tessárōn) (genitive plural of τέσσαρες (téssares, “four”)).

uder

(theology) A continuous narrative arranged from the first four books of the New Testament (the canonical gospels).


culture of death

en-noun

culture of death (plural cultures of death)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-culture of death.wav

(theology) In moral theology, the concept that human life can be a means to some other end and not solely an end itself.


ultramontane

en-adj

ultramontane (comparative more ultramontane, superlative most ultramontane)

more ultramontane (comparative)
most ultramontane (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French ultramontain, from Late Latin ultramontanus.

'Tis no wonder that a Council which had declar'd itſelf ſuperior to the Popes, which had undertaken to try, and even to depoſe them, and had given ſuch great Blows to the Privileges, and to the Authority of the Cardinals, was not relith'd by the Court of Rome, nor approv'd of by the Popes or tlieir Divines, nor by the Ultramontane Canonists.

1730, [1728], Jacques L'enfant, translated by Stephen Whatley, The History of the Council of Constance, volume 1, page ix:

It was by becoming a Catholic that I pacified the Vendee, and a Mussulman that I established myself in Egypt; it was by becoming ultramontane that I won over public opinion in Italy.

1910 [August 13, 1800], Napoleon Bonaparte, The Corsican: a Diary of Napoleon's Life in his Own Words, trans. Robert Matteson Johnston, Houghton Mifflin, pg. 144-145

My friend, a Scottish newspaper chief, has spent half a lifetime gliding across some of Fleet Street's more ultramontane and unreasonable titles.

2010 September 12, Kevin McKenna, “Save Catholicism? The pope needs a miracle”, in The Guardian:

(theology) Promoting the supremacy of the Pope.


sacramentalism

en-noun

sacramentalism (usually uncountable, plural sacramentalisms)

(theology) The belief that observance of the sacraments is necessary for salvation, or belief in their efficacy.

sacramentarianism

belief in observation or efficacy of the sacraments

(theology) The belief that the natural world is a reflection or imitation of a perfect supernatural one.


probabilist

(theology, philosophy) A follower of probabilism.


humanation

In sixteenth-century England the Protestant Church dropped the word ‘humanation’, but the German version, Menschwerdung, survived in Lutheran ‘wound mysticism’.

2006, Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake Cried, Pimlico, published 2007, page 33:

(theology, rare) The fact or process of becoming human.


particularism

particularism (countable and uncountable, plural particularisms)

From particular + -ism, after French particularisme.

(Christianity, Judaism, theology) The principle that only certain people are chosen by God for salvation.


virgin birth

virgin birth (countable and uncountable, plural virgin births)

virgin births (plural)
Virgin Birth (alternative)
Virgin birth (alternative)

(Christianity, theology) (often capitalized and used absolutely: the Virgin Birth) The miraculous birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary.

At the moment then when Sirius, the star from the East, by coming to the Meridian at midnight signalled the Sun's new birth, the Virgin was seen just rising on the Eastern sky - the horizon line passing through her centre. And many people think that this astronomical fact is the explanation of the very widespread legend of the Virgin-birth.

1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 31:


supererogate

en-verb

supererogate (third-person singular simple present supererogates, present participle supererogating, simple past and past participle supererogated)

supererogates (present singular third-person)
supererogating (participle present)
supererogated (participle past)
supererogated (past)

/ˌs(j)uːpəɹˈɛɹəɡeɪt/

/ˌsupəɹˈɛɹəˌɡeɪt/

Borrowed from Latin supererogare. See supererogation.

They who, in their obedience, attain to the greatest height which is possible in this life, are so far from being able to supererogate, and to do more than God requires, […]

The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter XVI, article iv

Were this all, therefore, or my task confined to such a relation, I should supererogate indeed in making this appearance.

1897, Stanley John Weyman, chapter I, in Shrewsbury:

(intransitive, theology, Catholicism) To do more than God commands.


synteresis

From Medieval Latin syntērēsis (in Thomas Aquinas), from Ancient Greek συντήρησις (suntḗrēsis, “careful watching”), from συντηρεῖν (suntēreîn, “to keep guard”).

der

Synteresis, or the purer part of the conscience, is an innate habit, and doth signify “a conservation of the knowledge of the law of God and Nature, to know good or evil”.

(theology, historical) An aspect of one's conscience by which one can judge wrong from right and decide on what makes good conduct (as distinguished from syneidesis).


emanationism

(theology) The idea that everything emanates from something else, and that the original and most perfect things emanated directly from God.


personal union

en-noun

personal union (countable and uncountable, plural personal unions)

In the political sense, calque of German persönliche Vereinigung (attributed to German jurist Johann Stephan Pütter, 1777).

calque

(theology, Christian theology) Hypostatic union; the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one individual existence (person).

unione ipostatica

union of Christ's human and divine natures in one person


word of God

Just as it would be utterly vain to lay natural reasons of comfort to him who hath no wit, so would it undoubtedly be frustrate to lay spiritual causes of comfort to him who hath no faith. For unless a man first believe that holy scripture is the word of God, and that the word of God is true, how can he take any comfort in that which the scripture telleth him?

1535, Sir Thomas More, Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, Book I, ch. 2:

(theology) the Scriptures, especially when interpreted as the work of God rather than man


apophatic

en-adj

apophatic (comparative more apophatic, superlative most apophatic)

more apophatic (comparative)
most apophatic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek ἀποφατικός (apophatikós, “negative”).

uder

For him, the assertions of Palamas ran counter to the apophatic insistence in Pseudo-Dionysius that God was unknowable in his essence.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 488:

Augustine had absorbed the underlying spirit of Greek apophatic theology, but the West did not develop a fully fledged spirituality of silence until the ninth century, when the writings of an unknown Greek author were translated into Latin and achieved near-canonical status in Europe.

2009, Karen Armstrong, The Case for God, Vintage, published 2010, page 123:

(theology) Pertaining to knowledge of God obtained through negation rather than positive assertions.

apophatique

pertaining to knowledge of God obtained through negation rather than positive assertions


apophatically

en-adv

apophatically (comparative more apophatically, superlative most apophatically)

more apophatically (comparative)
most apophatically (superlative)

(theology) In an apophatic way; using apophasis.


charism

en-noun

charism (countable and uncountable, plural charisms or charismata)

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek χάρισμα (khárisma, “grace”). Doublet of charisma.

lbor

Reviewing the prudential warnings and moral qualms issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “it is hard not to conclude,” the editors write, “that the bishops’ charism, rather than the president’s, has better served the nation.”

2007 April 14, Peter Steinfels, “A Catholic Debate Mounts on the Meaning of ‘Just War’”, in New York Times:

(Christianity, theology, rare) A power or authority, generally of a spiritual nature, believed to be a freely given gift by the Grace of God.

charisma

extraordinary power granted by the Holy Spirit


divine law

en-noun

divine law (countable and uncountable, plural divine laws)

(theology) Any law (or rule) that, in the opinion of believers, comes directly from the will of God (or a god).


ousia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek οὐσία (ousía), from οὖσα (oûsa), the feminine present participle of εἰμί (eimí, “I am”).

We could never know God's ousia, but in order to adapt his indescribable nature to our limited intellect, God communicated to us through his activities in the world.

2009, Karen Armstrong, The Case for God, Vintage, published 2010, page 79:

(theology) The essential nature or ‘substance’ of God, often as contrasted to the ‘energies’ (external actions and influences) through which he is manifest.


eternalism

[The earth’s] history stretched indefinitely or even infinitely into past and future and involved no unique and unexplained events such as the Flood; indeed, earth history was “without vestige of a beginning, without prospect of an end.” […] Most significantly, the virtual eternalism of such theories was extended, often explicitly, to the history of mankind[…]. Mankind could thus be claimed as uncreated and therefore not subject to any of the traditional moral and social constraints.

1986, Martin J. S. Rudwick, “The Shape and Meaning of Earth History”, in David C. Lindberg, Ronald L. Numbers, editors, God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science, →ISBN, page 307:

The first of these is eternalism, which holds that matter, energy, and intelligence—the components of the universe—are uncreated, indestructible, eternal, and forever fixed.

1997, Dale C. Lecheminant, “Foreword”, in John A. Widtsoe, Rational Theology: As Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, →ISBN, page vii:

(philosophy, theology) The view that matter is uncreated and has existed, and will exist, eternally.


Heilsgeschichte

Without a divine Heilsgeschichte it would not make sense to speak of Jesus' ‘deity’. He would then simply be one of the heroes of history—nothing more.

1959, Guthrie/Hall, translating Oscar Cullman, The Christology of the New Testament, p. 306

He was not a Leninist because he would have had no conception of historical self-determination. The only kind of history that mattered was Heilsgeschichte, or salvation history.

2007 December 4, Terry Eagleton, The Guardian:

The much greater iconographic programmes of the other three Bibles mean that a sort of pictorial Heilsgeschichte can be given spread throughout the work: in the Bamberg it has to be compressed.

2008, Jill Bradley, You Shall Surely Not Die, volume 1, page 71:

(theology) History seen as the work of God's salvation. (Especially, in Christianity, the history of the Old Testament, seen as a preparation for the coming of Christ.)

heilsgeschiedenis

history seen as the work of God's salvation


sacramentarian

/ˌsækɹəmənˈtɛəɹi.ən/

(theology) Someone who holds that the presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist is purely metaphorical rather than physical or literal.


passible

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French passible, from Late Latin passibilis.

(chiefly theology) Able to suffer, or feel pain.


age of judgment

age of judgment (plural ages of judgment)

Thus if God fixes and determines the Day of Judgment, upon the foreſight of ſuch a General Impiety as will deſerve a final exciſion, God cannot reveal this to the World: For one would think it impoſſible, did the World know this beforehand, but the Age of Judgment ſhould be the moſt Devout and Religious Age, that ever had been from the beginning of the World; and then that would not be a fit time to deſtroy the World; and God could not foreſee it the propereſt time of Judgment.

1692: William Sherlock, A Practical Diſcourſe concerning a Future Judgment, page 187 (2ⁿᵈ edition; printed by M.R. for W. Rogers, at the Sun over-againſt S. Dunſtan’s Church in Fleetſtreet)

(theology) The time of the Last Judgment


Christological

en-adj

Christological (comparative more Christological, superlative most Christological)

more Christological (comparative)
most Christological (superlative)

(theology) Of or pertaining to Christology


annihilationism

(theology) The Christian doctrine that sinners are permanently destroyed rather than being confined to Hell.


probabiliorism

(theology) The position that it is not lawful to act on a less safe opinion in moral matters unless it is more probable than a safe opinion.


transcreation

From transcreate + -ion, trans- + creation or from French transcreation.

(philosophy, theology) A type of creation by a deity or primal force.


soteriological

soteriological (comparative more soteriological, superlative most soteriological)

more soteriological (comparative)
most soteriological (superlative)

/səʊtɪəɹɪə(ʊ)ˈlɒdʒɪk(ə)l/

From soteriology + -ical, after German soteriologisch.

Despite common metaphorical formulations of the wu-wei ideal, each of the texts I will examine presents its own soteriological strategy for realizing wu-wei in practice, and these soteriological strategies are themselves formulated in terms of conceptual metaphor.

2003, Edward Slingerland, Effortless Action: Wu-wei As Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 12:

In fact he continued to accept Purgatory's existence until around 1530, when he finally realized that his soteriological revolution had abolished it (his change of mind demanded a certain amount of re-editing of some of his earlier writings).

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 608:


Aquinian

Aquinian (comparative more Aquinian, superlative most Aquinian)

more Aquinian (comparative)
most Aquinian (superlative)

(theology) Of or pertaining to Thomas Aquinas (circa 1225-1274), Italian Catholic priest and influential philosopher and theologian.


hermeneut

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἑρμηνευτής (hermēneutḗs, “interpreter”).

bor

Moses, full of sacrificial institutes, is the text, Isaiah and all the prophets are the hermeneuts[…].

1857 May 25, Professor Lumsden, “Conversion of the Jews”, in Proceedings of the Scotland Free Church General Assembly, page 46:

He was a hermeneut who worked out striking interpretations of texts.

1989, George H. Jensen, “Introduction”, in Post-Jungian Criticism, page 3:

(philosophy, theology) A practitioner of hermeneutics: someone who interprets a text, especially a holy text.


justiciary

en-noun

justiciary (countable and uncountable, plural justiciaries)

From Late Latin justitiaria, justiciaria (“judgeship, judiciarship; court sessions”), justitiarius, and justiciarius (“justiciar, judge, justice [of the peace]; judiciary, related to justice”), all from Latin iūstitia (“justice”) + -āria (“-ary”). Paralleled in Middle English and Early Modern English by forms from Anglo-Norman justiserie (“judgeship, judiciarship”), from Anglo-Norman and Middle French justicerie (“judgeship; tribunal”), from justice + -ery. As a translation of various Continental European offices, via Middle French justicier, Spanish justiciero, etc.

cog

(Christianity, theology) A believer in the doctrine (or heresy) that adherence to religious law redeems mankind before God.


justiciary

en-adj

justiciary (comparative more justiciary, superlative most justiciary)

more justiciary (comparative)
most justiciary (superlative)

(Christianity, theology, obsolete) Of or relating to justification or redemption before God.

(Christianity, theology, obsolete) Of or relating to the doctrine (or heresy) that adherence to religious law redeems mankind before God.


justiciar

From Late Latin justitiarius and justiciarius (“justiciar, judge, justice [of the peace]; judiciary, related to justice”), from Latin iūstitia (“justice”) + -āria (“-ary”). As a translation of various Continental European offices, via Middle French justicier, Spanish justiciero, justicia mayor, etc.

(Christianity, theology, rare) A justiciary: a believer in the doctrine (or heresy) that adherence to religious law redeems mankind before God.


necessarian

necessarians (plural)
Necessarian (alternative)

/ˌnɛsəˈsɛəɹi.ən/

1810, Charles Buck, Materialists, entry in A Theological Dictionary, Volume 2, page 86,
And the Necessarian asserts, that if, in any given state of mind, with respect both to dispositions and motives, two different determinations, or volitions, be possible, it can be on no other principle, than that one of them should come under the description of an effect without a cause; just as if the beam of a balance might incline either way, though loaded with equal weights.

But neither you nor myself, necessarian as I am, can pretend to this degree of perfection.

1832, Joseph Priestley, edited by John Towill Rutt, The Theological and Miscellaneous Works of Joseph Priestley, volume 4, page 191:

When it is considered that, according to the Necessarian doctrine, no action fails to produce effects, and no effort can be lost, there seems every reason for the conclusion which I have no doubt is the fact, that true Necessarians must be the most diligent and confident of all workers.

1877, Harriet Martineau, edited by Maria Weston Chapman, Harriet Martineau′s Autobiography, volume 1, Cambridge University Press, published 2010, page 112:

doctrine of necessity
doctrine of necessity

(philosophy, theology) An adherent of necessarianism; an advocate of the doctrine of necessity.


probabilism

en-noun

probabilism (usually uncountable, plural probabilisms)

(theology, chiefly Catholicism) The casuistic doctrine that, in difficult matters of conscience, one may safely follow a doctrine that is probable, e.g. approved by a recognized Doctor of the Church, even if the opposite opinion is more probable.


rigorism

rigorism (countable and uncountable, plural rigorisms)

rigorisms (plural)
rigourism (alternative)

/ˈɹɪɡəˌɹɪzm/

(Christianity, theology) In Roman Catholic moral theology, the doctrine that in a case of doubt between right and wrong one should take the safer course, i.e. the one in verbal accordance with the law.


beatific vision

beatific vision (countable and uncountable, plural beatific visions)

(Christianity, theology) The eternal and direct visual perception of God.


predestinarian

But it is wrong to stress only the predestinarian aspect of protestantism […].

1972, Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down, Folio Society, published 2016, page 123:

(chiefly theology) Of or relating to predestination.


antiuniversalism

(theology) Opposition to universalism (the theological belief that all souls can attain salvation).


pneumatology

pneumatology (countable and uncountable, plural pneumatologies)

From Ancient Greek πνεῦμα (pneûma, “breath”) + -logy.

These divine qualities migrated to Mary because of deficiencies in the theology of God, in Christology and in pneumatology. It makes no lasting sense to retain this as a permanent status quo, using Mary as a cover-up for defective notions of the divine.

2000 June 17, Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet”, in America, volume 182, number 21:

(Christianity, theology) The study of the Holy Spirit as revealed in Scripture.


pasch

Borrowed from Latin pascha. Perhaps also influenced by Old Norse páskar and its derivatives.

And on the first day of the Azymes, the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the pasch? But Jesus said: Go ye into the city to a certain man, and say to him: the master saith, My time is near at hand, with thee I make the pasch with my disciples.

1749, The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. […] Newly reviſed, and corrected according to the Clementin Edition of the Scriptures (Douay–Rheims Bible, Challoner Revision), Matthew 26:17–18:

NOW the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the pasch, was at hand.

1749, The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. […] Newly reviſed, and corrected according to the Clementin Edition of the Scriptures (Douay–Rheims Bible, Challoner Revision), Luke 22:1:

Victor, bishop of Rome, A. D. 192, thus writes: ‘[…] (we find) the catholic church celebrate ^([sic]) pasch, not on the fourteenth of the moon, with the Jews, but from the fifteenth day to the twenty-first. […]’

1843, Thomas SMYTH (D.D., of Charleston, S.C.), Presbytery and not Prelacy the Scriptural and Primitive Polity ... Also, the Antiquity of Presbytery; including an account of the ancient Culdees, and of St. Patrick, etc, page 372:

That the pasch must be taken in its usual sense of paschal lamb is clear from the words of the evangelists […]. The foregoing writers impugned the Judaizing Quartodecimans, […] the very existence of their adversaries attests an ancient tradition in the church that Jesus had eaten the pasch on the fourteenth day of Nisan. This error on the part of the orthodox champions must have arisen from the principle that Jesus is our true pasch, stated by St. Paul […].

1898, A. J. Maas, The Gospel According to Saint-Matthew: With an Explanatory and Critical Commentary, page 262:

For this reason the Hundred and Fourteenth Psalm is written, because it is the recompense of love; whence the pasch of the Lord received its manner of celebration at the fourteenth moon; since, he who celebrates the pasch ought to be perfect;[…]

1925, Catholic University of America, Patristic Studies, page 77:

[…] after a few words in which the pasch has not as yet been mentioned by name, he adds, “And thus shall you eat it: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands; and you shall eat it in haste. It is the pasch of the Lord.”

1989 [c. 226–229 CE], Origen, translated by Ronald E. Heine, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Catholic University of America Press, translation of original in Ancient Greek, →ISBN, page 271:

(theology or archaic) The feast of Passover or (specifically) the Paschal Lamb, or (for Christians), Easter, seen as the fulfillment of Passover.

The Man-God had scarcely returned to His Father when the Apostles hastened to establish a solemn festival to commemorate His pasch, that is to say, His glorious passage from death to life.

1884, Jean Gaume, The Catechism of Perseverance; Or, An Historical, Dogmatical, Moral, Liturgical, Apologetical, Philosophical, and Social Exposition of Religion: From the Beginning of the World Down to Our Own Days, page 381:

The immediate future of his pasch is his saving death, through which humanity is reconciled. The long-term, eschatological future is found in the promise of his resurrection and embraces the whole future of the life of the Church […]

1999, Anscar J. Chupungco, Handbook for Liturgical Studies: The Eucharist, Liturgical Press, →ISBN, page 330:

Rather, an ecclesiology nourished in the book of Nehemiah continually returns to Christ's pasch, to the people of God's dependence upon divine mercy in Christ.

2007 10, Matthew Levering, Ezra & Nehemiah, Brazos Press, →ISBN, page 212:

They were alone with the Messiah of Israel and made up his paschal group, the “passahhaburah”; they were the companions of his pasch, “the Twelve,” the nucleus of the Israel of the future, that “remnant” of Israel […]

2013, F. X. Durrwell, In the Redeeming Christ, Ave Maria Press, →ISBN, page 114:

(2) Jesus' pasch, his death and resurrection (from which there is no reason to exclude his life), is gospel, to which we respond substantially in orthodoxy; […]

2015, Jon Sobrino, Christ the Liberator: A View from the Victims, Orbis Books, →ISBN:

(theology or archaic) The Paschal Mystery; the death and resurrection of Jesus.


free grace

Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our sins. (the Westminster shorter catechism of 1647, question 33http://books.google.com/books?id=7gMNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA683&dq=%22Free+Grace%22&hl=en&ei=-pv_TLz3Hsrf4ga0-ISdCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Free%20Grace%22&f=false)

(theology) A concept of grace as a gift given freely by God, without regard to entitlement or merit.


miaphysite

A modern coinage from Byzantine Greek μία (mía, “one”) + φύσις (phúsis, “nature, substance”) + -ite; see Miaphysitism for more.

The leaders of the Miaphysite cause across the empire still loudly proclaimed their loyalty to the imperial throne, and there is no reason to doubt that most were sincere.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 233:

(theology) Of or pertaining to Miaphysitism; maintaining that Christ has a single, though composite, nature.


limited atonement

(Christianity, theology) A doctrine, one of the Five Points of Calvinism, stating that Jesus Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross is limited in scope to those who are predestined unto salvation, which is conferred only to believers.


total depravity

(Christianity, theology) A doctrine, one of the Five Points of Calvinism, that all human action is tainted by original sin.


perseverance of the saints

perseverance of the saints (uncountable)

(Christianity, theology) A doctrine, one of the Five Points of Calvinism, stating that true believers in Jesus Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross (the "saints") cannot relapse and are predestined to salvation.


unconditional election

(Christianity, theology) A doctrine, one of the Five Points of Calvinism, stating that Jesus Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross is extended to those predestined to become a believer, at God's discretion and without condition.


irresistible grace

(Christianity, theology) A doctrine, one of the Five Points of Calvinism, stating that the salvific benefit of Jesus Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross is extended to those predestined unto salvation, without any possibility of Satan or sin successfully defeating God's election.


Amyraldism

Named after its formulator, Moses Amyraut, + -ism.

four-point Calvinism
four-point Calvinism

(theology) A form of Protestant belief also known as four-point Calvinism.


metemorphothe

From Ancient Greek μετεμορφώθη (metemorphṓthē), third person singular passive aorist of μεταμορφόω (metamorphóō, “to transform”) (thus meaning "he was transformed").

der

(theology) The Transfiguration of Christ.


discrimen

en-noun

discrimen (plural discrimina or discrimens)

Some years ago James Gustafson advanced the thesis that any comprehensive and systematic account of theological ethics must have a central "discrimen" - an organizing perspective, principle, metaphor or analogy around which it is structured. That discrimen must relate in a coherent fashion four "base points": an understanding of God and God's purposes in relation to humans and the rest of creation; an interpretation of the significance of "the world" and human life in it; an interpretation of human moral agency and actionsl and an interpretation of how we ought to make moral choices and judgements.

1995, James B. Tubbs Jr, Christian Theology and Medical Ethics: Four Contemporary Approaches, →ISBN:

The discrimen, or pattern, that each theologian eventually chooses is his or her own distinctive construal of the discrimen that guides his or her critical theological judgements.

2000, Cleophus James LaRue, The Heart of Black Preaching, →ISBN, page 18:

And if we were to link this discrimen to Balthasar's synoptic judgment about what Christianity is all about, then it would be associated with humanity's participation in God as that is realized in God's incarnation in the person Jesus Christ. I do not wish to imply that these two discrimens are the only two with which Balthasar operated.

2003, William Thomas Dickens, Hans Urs Von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics, →ISBN:

But if discrimen is a cardinal virtue of adulthood, the tenets of infantilism work against it. Discrimen requires right judgement; but the idea of something, even judgment, being 'right', is in profound conflict with individualism (which says I can only claim my judgement as being right for me).

2012, Michael Bywater, Big Babies: Or: Why Can't We Just Grow Up?, →ISBN:

(theology) A pattern or organizing principle that forms the basis of moral judgements.


cataphatic

From Ancient Greek καταφατικός (kataphatikós, “affirmative”).

der

(theology) Pertaining to the expression of God in terms of what God is, rather than in terms of what God is not (apophatic).

cataphatique

pertaining to the expression of God in terms of what God is


litholatry

(chiefly theology) The worship of stones.


spiration

en-noun

spiration (usually uncountable, plural spirations)

(theology) The procession of the Holy Ghost.


mythicism

mythicism (countable and uncountable, plural mythicisms)

From myth + -icism. In occasional use since the 1840s.
The earliest use of the term was in Christian theology, in reference to the "Mythic Theory" of D. F. Strauss (1835). The more general sense appears from the 1870s.

1845: "Truly, if the caput mortuum of Christianity which mythicism leaves us, be all that is true of our religion, our feelings would tempt us to forgive the Evangelists who have so beautifully deceived, rather than the critics who so coldly disenchant us." (The Christian examiner, vol. 39, p. 160)

(theology) The scholarly opinion that the gospels are mythological expansions of historical data.


quinquarticular

the quinquarticular controversy between Arminians and Calvinists

(theology) Relating to the five articles of Remonstrance.


Miaphysitism

From miaphysite + -ism, a modern coinage from Byzantine Greek μία (mía, “one”) + φύσις (phúsis, “nature, substance”), referring in particular to the formula of Cyril of Alexandria, “one incarnate nature of the Word”, μία φύσις τοῦ Λόγου σεσαρκωμένη (mía phúsis toû Lógou sesarkōménē).

Oriental Orthodox Church
Oriental Orthodox Church

(theology) A Christological formula, upheld by the Oriental Orthodox Church, holding that divinity and humanity are united in a single nature in Christ.


necessarianism

Scholars working on Joseph Priestley have begun to take a proper measure of his philosophical position, known as “necessarianism,” a psychological determinism based on the teachings of the midcentury physician and theologian David Hartley—with, in Priestley′s own case, the addition of materialism. To its enemies, necessarianism seemed rank fatalism, but its adherents found that it both explained the evils about them and offered a sovereign remedy (generally through one or another variety of education) to resolve them and bring mankind to perfection.

1995, Denis G. Paz, Nineteenth-Century English Religious Traditions: Retrospect and Prospect, page 106:

While not acceptable to all Unitarians, the philosophical determinism known as Necessarianism, identified with Hartley and Priestley, also proved persuasive to many, both ministers and laymen.

2000, R. K. Webb, “6: Miracles in English Unitarian Thought”, in Mark S. Micale, Robert L. Dietle, editors, Enlightenment, Passion, Modernity: Historical Essays in European Thought and Culture, page 114:

To cut a long story short, this led to the emergence of a new form of necessarianism. People are conditioned to behave as they do, so freedom is an illusion. This form of necessarianism may be called ‘behaviourist necessarianism’.

2001, Alexander Crombie, An Essay on Philosophical Necessity, page number not shown:

(philosophy, metaphysics, theology) An extreme form of determinism that holds that all phenomena, including the will, are subject to immutable rules of cause and effect; necessitarianism.


Homoousion

/hɒməʊˈuːzɪɒn/

From ecclesiastical Koine Greek ὁμοούσιον (homooúsion), neuter of ὁμοούσιος (homooúsios), formed by combining ὁμός (homós, “same”) and οὐσία (ousía, “being”) with the adjectival morpheme -ῐος (-ĭos).

The campaign to get rid of the Homoousion from Christian credal statements split the Church in the empire for another half-century and more.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 215:

(theology) The inclusion of the term ὁμοούσιος (homooúsios, “same essence”) in the Nicene Creed to describe the principle that the Son is ‘of one substance’ with the Father (as opposed to the term homo(I)ousion, like in essence).


Homoean

en-adj

Homoean (comparative more Homoean, superlative most Homoean)

more Homoean (comparative)
most Homoean (superlative)
Homoian (alternative)

From Latin homoeus, from Ancient Greek ὅμοιος (hómoios, “like, similar”), + -an.

der

Maybe the Homoean formula of Ariminum would have succeeded in uniting the Church if Constantius had not unexpectedly died in his mid-forties in 361.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 216:

(theology) Pertaining to the belief established in the fourth century as a middle ground between the homoousian and homoiousian positions, contending merely that the Father is ‘like’ the Son.


theopaschism

This central statement of a theological movement known as ‘Theopaschism’ was controversial even among Miaphysites, causing major divisions in their ranks […]

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 239:

(theology) The doctrine that a god can suffer.


Dyophysite

/dʌɪˈɒfəzʌɪt/

From ecclesiastical Ancient Greek δυοφυσῖται (duophusîtai), from δύο (dúo, “two”) + φύσις (phúsis, “nature”).

Monasteries among the Dyophysites were strengthened through the military success of the Sassanian Shah Khusrau II in areas of the Byzantine Empire along the eastern Mediterranean.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 247:

(theology) Someone who believes in the doctrine that there are ‘two natures’, human and divine, in Christ.

երկաբնակ

someone who believes in the doctrine that there are ‘two natures’, human and divine, in Christ


filioque

From Latin filioque, from filiō (“from the son”, ablative) + -que (“and”).

af

But in 867 an assertion of papal authority led to a formal split. Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, attacked the filioque, which was beginning to draw papal support, and summoned a council that excommunicated the Pope.

1989 May, John Garvey, “Eastern Orthodoxy”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:

Another issue was the promotion of that troublesome addition to the Nicene Creed, the Filioque or double procession in the Trinity of the Spirit from Father and Son, which had taken its cue from Augustine's writing on the Trinity.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 350:

The Second Council of Lyon […] only succeeded in confirming and defining a key item of Catholic theology, the filioque, which has barred the way to reconciliation ever since.

2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 126:

Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

(theology) The use of the Latin word filioque (“and from the son”) in the Western form of the Nicene Creed, to indicate that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son (as opposed to the Eastern Orthodox Churches which believe the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone).


theosis

tlb

(Christianity, chiefly Eastern Orthodoxy, theology)

/θiːˈəʊ.sɪs/

Borrowed from Latin theōsis, from Ancient Greek θέωσις (théōsis).

For him, theosis or deification was the destination for human salvation, whose attainment Adam’s sin in Eden had imperilled but not rendered impossible;[…]

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, Viking Press, →ISBN, page 440:

The likeness to or union with God; deification.


kenotic

Linked to the kenotic concept of innocence and denial of self-esteem was the new popularity which from very early on an old genre of Eastern saint enjoyed in the Christianity of Kievan Rus’, and which has endured into modern Russian Orthodoxy: the Holy Fool.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 509:


sobornost

Some post-Soviet writers see sobornost’ as a – if not the – defining element in giving distinctiveness to Russian civilization.

2004, James H Billington, Russia in Search of Itself, page 146:

Sobornost signifies the essentially extrapersonal (supra-personal) and a-temporal nature of aesthetic consciousness.

2007, Paul Haffner, Mystery of the Church, page 132:

Key to his thought was a concept which has become central to modern Russian Orthodox thinking, Sobornost’, the proposition that freedom is inseparable from unity, communion or community.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 851:

(philosophy, theology) A unity of people in loving fellowship.


penal substitution

As part of that literal reading, concentrating on a line of thought on salvation pursued by St Paul, came the penal substitution theory, and Fundamentalists rightly concluded that these were the aspects of Christianity most vulnerable to attack from nineteenth-century intellectual developments.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 863:

(theology) The theory of atonement which holds that Jesus died on the Cross in place of human sinners.


minjung

From Korean 민중(民衆) (minjung), from Middle Chinese 民眾 (MC mjin tsyuwngH, “common people, the masses”). Compare Mandarin 民眾 /民众 (mínzhòng).

ltc-l

The minjung have learned to dream of a world from which oppression, conflict and suffering have been removed; a world where they are no longer the ruled, but the rulers of their own lives and destinies, and the subjects of their own history.

1996, Sang Taek Lee, Religion and Social Formation in Korea, page 171:

Therefore the theologians' main concern was not dealing with individual poor people but rather to do with social process and the system which prevents the minjung from coming out of their misery.

2008, Sebastian CH Kim, Christian Theology in Asia, page 140:

Jesus was minjung and the friend of the minjung, teaching forgiveness and love of enemies, but Moses was also minjung, political leader of his people against oppression.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 978:

(politics, theology) In South Korea, peasants or working-class people.


isagogics

(theology) That part of theological science directly preliminary to actual exegesis, or interpretation of Scripture.


unipersonalist

This dictates the reasonableness of the rupture of a unipersonalist absolute that is pseudomonotheistic since, in this case, the possibility of any other being would have been made impossible.

2004, George F. McLean, Robert R. Magliola, William Fox, Democracy: In the Throes of Liberalism and Totalitarianism, page 101:

(theology) One who believes in a unipersonal deity, i.e. that God is one being, while being the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


unigeniture

/ˌjuːnɪˈd͡ʒɛnɪtjʊə/

/ˌjuːnɪˈd͡ʒɛnɪtʃə/

/ˌjunɪˈd͡ʒɛnɪt͡ʃɚ/

From Latin unigenitus (“only-begotten”), from unus (“one”) + genitum (“to beget”).

1868, Rev. J. Gorle, An Analysis of Pearson on the Creed
Though therefore Christ be the only-begotten and the beloved Son of God, we must not regard these two attributes as equivalent in meaning, but as one depending on the other, the singular love on the unigeniture.

(theology) The state of being the sole begotten.


reprobationer

Sanctifyed Reprobationers we abound with

1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

(theology) Someone who believes in reprobation.


immersionist

(theology) One who holds the doctrine that immersion is an essential part of Christian baptism.


immersionism

(theology) The doctrine that immersion is an essential part of Christian baptism.


metamorphist

I would you did but see what I have seene in these Conntries, as concerning the deadly hatreds, contentions & differensions of Luther has of-fspring: as of the Muntzerans, Anabaptists, Adamists, […] Metamorphists, Iudaists, Neutersacramentaries, Image-breakers, […], & of such like: al which have sucked their errours out of the dregges of Luthers doctrine, and yet forsooth will be found Protestants all.

1604, George Abbot, The Reasons which Doctour Hill Hath Brought for the Upholding of Papistry, page 97:

(Christianity, theology) One who believes that the body of Christ was merged into God when he ascended.

Concerning the progeny of the transfigured sinners, Muslim scholars split into two groups, which Cook figuratively designated as "creationists" and "metamorphists.” The former held that swine and monkeys were created in the form they exist today, whereas the latter believed that their contemporary apes and swine were the progeny of the transfigured sinners.

2022, Pavel Pavlovitch, Muslim al-Naysābūrī (d. 261/875): The Sceptical Traditionalist, page 121:

On the other hand, there was the metamorphist position that some species were not created at all; instead they were brought into existence through metamorphosis in later epochs, after which they enjoyed a biological fitness no less than that of created species.

2022, Michael Cook, Studies in the Origins of Early Islamic Culture and Tradition, page 54:

(Islam, theology) One who believes that some species were not part of the original creation but arose as the transformed souls of sinners.


Scotist

[…] it should be remembered that their poets and rabbis of the middle ages were contemporary with the Scotists and Thomists, with the pseudo-platonism and peripateticism of Christendom.

1842, The Saint Petersburg English Review of Literature:

(theology) A follower of John Duns Scotus, Franciscan scholar, who maintained certain doctrines in philosophy and theology in opposition to the Thomists.


Neonomianism

(theology) The doctrine that the Gospel is a new law whose requirements are fulfilled by faith and repentance, most often associated with the theology of Richard Baxter (1615-1691).


partialist

(theology) One who believes in partialism, i.e. that Christ's atonement was made for only a part of humanity, the elect.


DPT

en-noun

DPT (countable and uncountable, plural DPTs)

Doctor of Practical Theology
w:Doctor of Practical Theology

(theology) Initialism of Doctor of Practical Theology.


terminism

(theology) The Christian doctrine that there is a time limit for repentance from sin, after which God no longer wills the conversion and salvation of the sinner.


terminist

(theology) One who supports the doctrine of terminism.


theandric

one Theandrick or Deivirile Action

1693, Louis Ellies Du Pin, A New History of Ecclesiastical Writers:

(theology) Relating to, or existing by, the union of divine and human operation in Christ, or the joint agency of the divine and human nature.


Erastian

Napoleon may not have believed in God, but he certainly believed in the desirability of religion, and, while his outlook was naturally Erastian, he was anxious from the first to restore normal relations with the Papacy.

1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 96:

(theology, historical) Of or relating to Thomas Erastus (1524–1583), Swiss physician and theologian, or his doctrines, associated with the idea that the State should have supremacy in ecclesiastical matters.


transubstantiator

Roman Transubstantiators

a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC:

(theology) Someone who holds the doctrine of transubstantiation.


psychopannychism

From psycho- + Ancient Greek παννύχιος (pannúkhios, “all night long”) + -ism.

der

(theology) The doctrine that the soul falls asleep at death, and does not wake until the resurrection of the body.


Eunomian

(historical, theology) A follower of Eunomius, the bishop of Cyzicus in the 4th century, who believed that Jesus Christ was not of, or like, the same nature as God


Apollinarian

/əˈpɒlɪˈnɛəɹi.ən/

/əˈpɑləˈnɛɹi.ən/

(historical, theology) A follower of Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea in the fourth century, who denied the proper humanity of Christ.

apolinário

a follower of Apollinaris, who denied the proper humanity of Christ


particularist

en-adj

particularist (comparative more particularist, superlative most particularist)

more particularist (comparative)
most particularist (superlative)

From particular + -ist, after French particulariste.


psilanthropy

(theology) The doctrine that Jesus Christ was merely human, i.e. not the son of God.


latreutical

From Ancient Greek λατρευτικός (latreutikós), from λατρεύω (latreúō, “to serve, to worship”), + -al. Compare -latry.

[I]n this ſacred Supper there is a ſacrifice (in that ſenſe vvherein the Fathers ſpoke) none of vs euer doubted: but that is then, either Latreuticall (as [Robert] Bellarmine diſtinguiſhes it not ill) or Euchariſticall: […]

1614, Jos[eph] Hall, “No Peace with Rome. […]. Section 19. Concerning the Sacrifice of the Masse..”, in A Recollection of Such Treatises as Haue Bene heretofore Seuerally Published and are Nowe Reuised, Corrected, Augmented. […], London: […] [Humfrey Lownes] for Arthur Iohnson, Samuel Macham and Laurence Lisle, published 1615, →OCLC, page 878:

We have already highlighted the primacy of the first of these, the latreutical end of this et-et, that is, of the adoration of God.

2020, Truth Is a Synthesis: Catholic Dogmatic Theology, translation of original by Mauro Gagliardi, page 656:


Areopagitic

Areopagitic (comparative more Areopagitic, superlative most Areopagitic)

more Areopagitic (comparative)
most Areopagitic (superlative)

/ˌɛəɹiəʊpəˈd͡ʒɪtɪk/

Latin Areopagiticus, from Ancient Greek.

In the concept of pantheism Khidasheli implies the unity of God and the world and not their similarity; he thinks that such an interpretation of pantheism is given in Neoplatonic and Areopagitic writings.

2014, Mikheil Makharadze, “Philosophical Ideas of the Corpus Areopagiticum”, in Tamar Nutsubidze, Cornelia B. Horn, Basil Lourié, editors, Georgian Christian Thought and Its Cultural Context, BRILL, page 326:

In the West, the Areopagitic texts were translated by Hilduin (c. 785 — c. 855), Bishop of Paris, who received a manuscript at his monastery of Saint Denys, and Johannes Scotus Eriugena (815-877) who knew about them from his time in Irish monasteries and produced a widely known and used translation in middle and later medieval times.

2020, Constantinos Athanasopoulos, “5. The Cloud of Unknowing in Eckhart, Palamas, and Wittgenstein”, in Constantinos Athanasopoulos, editor, Orthodox Mysticism and Asceticism, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page 88:

(theology, early Christianity, historical) Of or pertaining to the Corpus Areopagiticum of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.


circumincession

en-noun

circumincession (usually uncountable, plural circumincessions)

circumincessions (plural)
circuminsession (alternative)

From circum- + Latin incedere, incessum (“to walk”).

(theology) The reciprocal existence in each other of the three persons of the Trinity.


corporealism

corporealism (countable and uncountable, plural corporealisms)

(theology) The belief that God has a physical body, as opposed to being immaterial.


preeternity

preeternity (usually uncountable, plural preeternities)

the Worlds Pre-eternity

1678, R[alph] Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated, London: […] Richard Royston, […], →OCLC:

(theology) An infinite previous duration, an eternity in the past


omphalopsychite

Borrowed from Byzantine Greek ὀμφαλοψυχίτης (omphalopsukhítēs), from ὀμφαλός (omphalós, “navel”) + ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul”) + -ίτης (-ítēs, “-ite”), i.e. “one with his soul in his navel”, referring to the practice by some Hesychasts of gazing on the navel as a means to concentrate during meditation. By surface analysis, omphalo- + psych- + -ite.

bor+

ὀμφαλοψυχίτης


presuppositionalism

It is sometimes supposed that extensional propositions—in particular Russellian propositions, which are adopted in some neo-Millian views about proper names—are incompatible with intensionalism and presuppositionalism.

2004, Jerrold J. Katz, Sense, Reference, and Philosophy, page 115:

(theology) A school of Christian apologetics that presumes Christian faith is the only basis for rational thought.


nomism

From Ancient Greek νόμος (nómos, “law”) + -ism.

(theology) The following of religious laws or commandments as the chief aspect of religiousness.

nomismi

idea of the chief aspect of religiousness


heliotheism

Sun-worship (solarism, or heliotheism) seems to the modern scientist to be the best of all forms of theism, and the one which may be most easily reconciled with modern monism.

1905, Ernst Haeckel, translated by Joseph McCabe, The Riddle of the Universe: At the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Harper & Brothers Publishers, page 280:

(theology) Worship of the Sun; belief that the Sun is a god.


postliberal

(theology) Relating to postliberal theology.


laxist

(chiefly theology) Someone promoting lax views or relaxed interpretations of something.


laxist

en-adj

laxist (comparative more laxist, superlative most laxist)

more laxist (comparative)
most laxist (superlative)

The Jesuits, it was charged, championed a laxist theology which encouraged rather than deterred sin [...].

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 248:

(chiefly theology) Promoting a lax view or interpretation of something.


Vicar of Christ

en-noun

Vicar of Christ (plural Vicars of Christ)

Vicars of Christ (plural)
Vicar of Jesus Christ (alternative)

Calque of Ecclesiastical Latin vicārius Christī.

calque

Grant, then, . . . that the Holy Ghost had no such respect to any one (church) as to lead it into truth, although sent with this view by Christ, and for this asked of the Father that He might be the teacher of truth; grant, also, that He, the Steward of God, the Vicar of Christ, neglected His office . . .

1885, Tertullian, chapter XXVIII, in Peter Holmes, transl., Prescription against Heretics:

(Christianity, theology, very rare) The Holy Ghost.


hexameron

hexamerons (plural)
Hexameron (alternative)
hexæmeron (alternative)
hexaëmeron (alternative)
hexaemeron (alternative)
hexahemeron (alternative)

From Ancient Greek ἑξαήμερον (hexaḗmeron, “six-day”).

der

He drew melancholy comparisons from Nature: men were compared to wandering clouds that dissolve into nothing, to wavering shadows, and shipwrecked beings, etc. His homilies on the Hexameron, too, shew thought of Nature.

1905, Alfred Biese, The Development of the Feeling for Nature In the Middle Ages and Modern Times, page 34:

(theology) The six days in which God created the world according to the biblical creation story.

(theology) The narrative in the Book of Genesis describing the events of the hexameron.


monoousian

/ˌmɒnəʊˈuːzɪən/

From Ancient Greek μονοούσιος (monooúsios, “of one substance”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone, only, sole, single”) + οὐσία (ousía, “being, substance, essence”) + -ian.

uder

But the homoousian Trinity of the orthodox went exactly in the middle, betwixt that monoousian trinity of Sabellius, which was a trinity of different notions or conceptions only of one and the self-same thing, and that other heteroousian trinity of Arius, which was a trinity of separate and heterogenous substances (one of which only was God, and the other creatures); […]

1678, Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe, volume I:

The use of the word "monoousian," as above, may mislead; for the orthodox view of the trinity has unquestionably and necessarily a monoousian basis; there is, and can be, but one essence in the godhead.

April 1867, The American Presbyterian and Theological Review, volume 5, number 18, page 339:

The trinitarian idea of personality lies midway between that of a mere form of manifestation, or a personation, which would lead to Sabellianism, and the idea of an independent, limited human personality, which would result in tritheism. In other words, it avoids the monoousian or unitarian trinity of a threefold conception and aspect of one and the same being, and the triousian or tritheistic trinity of three distinct and separate beings.

1884, Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, volume III, T. & T. Clark, pages 676–677:

(theology) Having one and the same nature or essence, especially with regard to the persons of the Trinity.

μονοούσιος

having one and the same nature or essence


preterism

(theology) A Christian eschatological view that interprets Biblical prophecies as events which happened in the first century C.E..


doctrine of necessity

duress of circumstances

principle of preservation of greater utilitarian value

In examining the doctrine of necessity, I shall endeavour to bring what I have to say about the subject into as narrow a compass as possible, and for that purpose the following axioms are premised; as in all sciences, some principles must be taken for granted, else nothing can be proved.

1803, John Dawson, The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Briefly Invalidated, page 7:

(philosophy, metaphysics, theology) Necessarianism, especially as espoused by Joseph Priestley.


monergism

en-noun

monergism (countable and uncountable, plural monergisms)

(theology) A Christian position holding that God, through the Holy Spirit, works to bring about effectually the salvation of individuals through spiritual regeneration without cooperation from the individual.


restrictivism

From restrictive + -ism, coined by John E. Sanders.

(theology) The view that Christian salvation is possible only for those who have heard about the gospel of Jesus and put their faith in Jesus prior to their death.


antimonistic

en-adj

antimonistic (comparative more antimonistic, superlative most antimonistic)

more antimonistic (comparative)
most antimonistic (superlative)
anti-monistic (alternative)


physis

en-noun

physis (countable and uncountable, plural physes)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis).

(Ancient Greek philosophy and theology) Nature, as contrasted with law or custom.

physis

nature, as contrasted with law or custom


vexillolatry

Beginning when I was about twelve, I railed, silently, against having to begin school each day by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, with right hand over heart, if you can imagine such shameless vexillolatry.

2000, Douglas Fethering, Travels by Night, →ISBN, pages 42–43:

(theology) The worship of a flag or flags.


satispassion

From Latin satispassiō, a compound of satis (“enough”) and passio (“suffering, or sufferance”). Compare passion.

This, this is the great "with us;" […] "with us" in all the virtues and merits of His life; "with us" in the satisfaction and satispassion (both) of His death; […]

1615 January 4 (Gregorian calendar), Lancelot Andrewes, “A Sermon Preached before the King’s Majesty, at Whitehall, on Sunday, the Twenty-fifth of December, A.D. MDCXIV. being Christmas-Day”, in J[ohn] P[osthumous] W[ilson], editor, Ninety-six Sermons […], volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Henry Parker, published 1841, →OCLC, page 147:

He muſt pay to Gods juſtice the temporal Puniſhment which he ows, and this is don either by Satispaſsion ſuffering the pains of Purgatorie for a certain time; or by the ſuffrages and penal works of the Living which they apply to him; or by Indulgence, applying from the treaſure of the Church, that’s of the ſuperabundant Satisfaction of Chriſt and his Saints, as much as will anſwer to the pains which they are to ſuffer there.

1678, Ignatius Brown, An Vnerrable Church or None, Being a Rejoynder to the Vnerring, Vnerrable Church: Againſt Dʳ Andrew Sall’s Repley entituled The Catholic Apoſtolic Church of England. Written by J. S. and dedicated to the moſt illuſtrious Prince, James Duke of Ormond, &c., chapter XX: “Purgatorie and Indulgences”, page 311

This [reparation for sin] may be made…by satispassion, or sufferings simply endured.

1890, Walter John Bruce Richards, A Catechism on Indulgences, Burns & Oates, page 8

Like His satispassion, so His satisfaction embraces the whole earthly career of the Saviour.

1897, A Catholic Dictionary, 5th edition, Redemption:

(theology) Atonement by suffering to an adequate degree.

satispassiō

atonement by suffering to an adequate degree


actual sin

(theology) Sin committed by an individual, in contradistinction to original sin.


unipersonalism

(theology) Belief in unipersonality of a deity.


connexionalism

Can it be said that here is an application of Methodism's concept of connexionalism to the embodiment of koinonia? That no indications in the dialogue point overtly in this direction does not rule out the possibility of it being in the Methodist mind and heart.

2008, Lorelei F. Fuchs, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology:

(theology) The theological understanding and foundation of Methodist polity, as practised in the British Methodist Church, the American United Methodist Church, and many of the countries where Methodism was established by their missionaries.


invincible ignorance

(theology) Ignorance beyond the individual's control and for which, therefore, he/she is not responsible before God.


nudifidian

(theology) One who relies on faith alone without works for salvation.


God the Father

And aboue all thynges: ye muſt geue moſte humble and hartie thankes to God the father, the ſonne, and the holy ghoſt, for the redempcion of the worlde...

1549, The booke of the common prayer and adminiſtracion of the Sacramentes, and other rites and ceremonies of the Churche: after the vſe of the Churche of England:

(Christianity theology) The person (hypostasis) of the Trinity or Godhead corresponding to the God of Abraham and the Jewish scriptures and considered the creator of mankind and Father of Jesus Christ.


God the Son

The proper noun is explained by the history of Christianity; for the etymons, see god and son.

Holonyms: Trinity; God, Lord

That which were a dishonour to God the Son, were a dishonour to God the holy Ghost.

1645, G. Gillespie, Nihil Respondes, section 11:

(Christianity theology) The person (hypostasis) of the Trinity or Godhead corresponding to the Word of God, which became flesh—incarnated—in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father.

Бог Син

the person of the Trinity that became flesh in Jesus Christ


God the Holy Ghost

(Christianity theology) The person (hypostasis) of the Trinity or Godhead corresponding to divine essence present in the faithful (particularly, inspired prophets) and considered to proceed either (Eastern Orthodoxy) from God the Father alone or (Roman Catholicism) from Him together with God the Son.


redemptionism

redemptionism (usually uncountable, plural redemptionisms)

(theology) The doctrine that all of humanity was redeemed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and that the redemption of all was completed and concluded in Jesus's resurrection, and that there was no further need for scriptural fulfillment thereafter.


separationist

(theology) One who believes that the human Jesus Christ was a separate being from the divine Christ.


anhypostatic

(theology, Christianity) Not hypostatic.


apophatism

apophatism (countable and uncountable, plural apophatisms)

(theology) A theory of approaching knowledge of God through negative rather than positive assertions.

αποφατισμός

a theory of approaching knowledge of God through negative assertions


autoctisis

A neologism based on the Ancient Greek roots αὐτός (autós, “self”) + κτῐ́σῐς (ktĭ́sĭs, “creation”), introduced by Giovanni Gentile.

compound

(theology, philosophy) The “pure act” of self-creation through being conscious of oneself.


Apollinarism

From Apollinaris of Laodicea, who taught this theology, + -ism.

(Christianity theology) The Christological theology that Jesus's mind was only divine and not human, condemned as a heresy at the First Council of Constantinople.

apollinarismi

the doctrine that Jesus’s mind was only divine and not human


only-begotten

From Middle English oonlybigeten, equivalent to only + begotten. Compare also Middle English only geten, oonly geten (“only-begotten”, literally “only-gotten”) and Middle English onbygoten, oon be-gotyn, one bygeten, oon bigetun, oon bigeten (“only-begotten”, literally “one-begotten”). Calque of Latin ūnigenitus, itself a calque of Ancient Greek μονογενής (monogenḗs).

Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed
And [we believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.

(Christianity theology) One of the attributes of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father.


transformationalism

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-transformationalism.wav

Their position denies the general revelation of God given in the other religions, while inclusive transformationalism acknowledges the relative usefulness and values that other religions have, even though they do not bring salvation.

2003, Wallace M. Alston, Michael Welker, Reformed Theology: Identity and Ecumenicity - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 16:

Unlike ecumenism, transformationalism is not an expression of denominational uniformity, but an expression of interdenominational alliances.

2007, Joshua Reichard, Rust to Renewal, →ISBN, page 123:

Transformationalism may describe the reality of religion in America, but normatively speaking it fails to reveal anything about the quality or implications of those changes.

2009, Zachary I. Heller, Synagogues in a Time of Change, →ISBN, page 23:

(theology) A fusion of evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, and ecumenism that became prominent in the early 21st century; transformational Christianity.


amillennialistic

(theology, rare) Relating to amillennialism.


antilapsarian

(theology) One who does not believe that mankind has fallen from a better state.


antiuniversalist

(theology) One who opposes universalism (the theological belief that all souls can attain salvation).


Christ event

Another problem is that reconstructions of Paul with the help of the concept of 'corporate personality' tend to emphasise the objectivity and realised character of the Christ event.

2009, Hans Burger, Being in Christ: A Biblical and Systematic Investigation, page 264:

In fact, if a theologian approaches the Christ-Event with the intent to exhaustively grasp God, the Christology of the theologian is doomed to failure.

2010, Victor I Ezigbo, Re-Imagining African Christologies, page 187:

Because of the Star of Bethlehem, we would expect there to be astrological stories predating the actual Star of Bethlehem, much in the same way that Lewis argued that because of the actual Christ-event we should expect to find echoes and intimations outside of the actual event.

2012, PH Brazier, C.S. Lewis – The Work of Christ Revealed, page 262:

(theology) A summary of the reality and effects of Jesus, particularly focused on his first advent. In that sense, it addresses the totality of his work, including his Incarnation, death on the cross, resurrection from the dead, and ascension to heaven.


Paulinize

en-verb

Paulinize (third-person singular simple present Paulinizes, present participle Paulinizing, simple past and past participle Paulinized)

Paulinizes (present singular third-person)
Paulinizing (participle present)
Paulinized (participle past)
Paulinized (past)

(transitive, Christianity, theology) To cause to conform with the writings or doctrines of the Apostle Paul.


Petrinize

Petrinize (third-person singular simple present Petrinizes, present participle Petrinizing, simple past and past participle Petrinized)

Petrinizes (present singular third-person)
Petrinizing (participle present)
Petrinized (participle past)
Petrinized (past)

(transitive, Christianity, theology) To cause to conform with the writings or doctrines of Saint Peter.


antipredestinarian

en-adj

antipredestinarian (comparative more antipredestinarian, superlative most antipredestinarian)

more antipredestinarian (comparative)
most antipredestinarian (superlative)

/ˌæntɪpɹiːdɛstɪˈnɛəɹɪən/

Antipredestinarian ideas cropped up in many places, expressed by persons who may have had little else in common: sectaries such as the Quakers and General Baptists, democratizing radicals such as Walwyn and Winstanley, and academics such as the Cambridge Platonists Cudworth and More.

2006, Tobias Gregory, From Many Gods to One, page 304:

A 17th-century controversy between the followers of Jacob Arminius and Francis Gomar over predestination was settled by the Synod of Dort (1618—1619), which condemned the antipredestinarian teachings of Arminius in its Canons of Dort.

2009, Robert Benedetto, Donald K. McKim, Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches, page 346:

(theology) Opposed to the doctrine of predestination.


pre-Adamitism

pre-adamitism (alternative)
Preadamitism (alternative)

The doctrine of 'pre-Adamitism,' while heretical and guaranteed to generate storms of controversy, won some prominent adherents.

1994, Alvin Snider, Origin and Authority in Seventeenth-Century England, page 134:

He probably also had theological reasons for not considering pre-Adamitism.

2007, Davis A. Young, John Calvin and the natural world, →ISBN, page 151:

(theology) The belief that humanity is descended from a single progenitor that predates Adam.


co-Adamitism

(theology) The belief that the different races are descended from separately created progenitors.


aeviternal

Further, if there is no before and after in aeviternity, it follows that in aeviternal things there is no difference between being, having been, or going to be. Since then it is impossible for aeviternal things not to have been, it follows that it is impossible for them not to be in the future; which is false, since God can reduce them to nothing.

1862, (St. Thomas Aquinas), Summa Theologica - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 78:

In aeviternal rhythms the current of time would be channeled in the cosmos, reflecting not only the pulsation of life within the microcosm, but with it also the possibility of realization, in samadhi, of timelessness.

1992, Stella Kramrisch, The Presence of Siva, →ISBN, page 268:

And in general, memory and imagination, bygone facts and aeviternal fictions, are closely intermingled, since the factual memory, as it drops back, is almost inexorably transformed into a fictive image, while imagined images are often artfully assimilated to the factual past.

2001, Eva Brann, What, Then, Is Time?, →ISBN, page 214:

It is hard because it is very difficult to convert our thinking from the physical to the spiritual; from time to aeviternal and more so to eternity.

2014, Justin Nnaemeka Onyeukaziri, Echoes of the Good News, →ISBN, page 93:

(theology) Pertaining to aeviternity, a state between eternity, which is unchanging and outside of time, and temporality, which is subject to change and to death or annihilation. Things aeviternal are creations, like the temporal, but everlasting, like the eternal.


means of grace

(Christianity, theology) a means by which God gives grace, usually considered to include both word and sacrament, and often other ways as well


patriology

From Ancient Greek πατέρας (patéras, “father”) + -logy.

uder

(Christianity, theology) A discipline of Christian theology, involving the study of God the Father as revealed in Scripture.


sign of contradiction

en-noun

sign of contradiction (plural signs of contradiction)

(theology) In Catholic theology, someone who, upon manifesting holiness, is subject to extreme opposition, traditionally supposed to point to the presence of the divine.


premove

en-verb

premove (third-person singular simple present premoves, present participle premoving, simple past and past participle premoved)

premoves (present singular third-person)
premoving (participle present)
premoved (participle past)
premoved (past)

Let it be assumed, then, that God does premove earthly phenomena, and let the further very obvious supposition be also made that He does not desire this premovement to be a visible and palpable fact.

1867, William George Ward, Essays on the Philosophy of Theism: Supplementary remarks on freewill, volume 2, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., published 1884, page 187:

(philosophy, theology, rare) To incite or cause someone to do something.


protology

en-noun

protology (countable and uncountable, plural protologies)

From Ancient Greek πρωτολογίᾱ (prōtologíā). By surface analysis, proto- + -logy.

And hence the progress of the history of salvation is the progress of protology in the progressive development of its starting-point.

1975, Karl Rahner, Encyclopedia of Theology: A Concise Sacramentum Mundi, →ISBN, page 320:

The Chalcedonian defender of thoroughgoing aphtharsia, driven into a corner, now seeks refuge in protology, that is, in referring to the original condition of Adam in Paradise, with whom he compares Christ.

1995, Aloys Grillmeier, Theresia Hainthaler, Christ in Christian Tradition, →ISBN, page 226:

Our task, in what must necessarily be a longer section than those previous, will be first to explore the eschatological dimension of the protological image, then to show how these dual dimensions of protology and eschatology ground Irenaeus' focus on history and salvation as 'recapitulation'.

2009, M. C. Steenberg, Of God and Man: Theology as Anthropology from Irenaeus to Athanasius, →ISBN:

(theology) The branch of theology pertaining to origins and first things.


presuppositionalist

(theology) Of or pertaining to presuppositionalism.


presuppositionalist

(theology) A supporter of presuppositionalism.


reversalism

reversalism (usually uncountable, plural reversalisms)

(philosophy, theology, uncountable) The idea that what is true about the universe is the exact opposite of what a person or group of people believes.


reversalist

(philosophy, theology) Of or pertaining to reversalism or to reversalists.


reversalist

(philosophy, theology) A supporter of the idea of reversalism.


Dharmism

(rare, theology) A belief system, historically originating in South Asia, based on the core concept of dharma.


preparationism

(theology) The view, in Christianity, that unregenerate people can take steps (such as praying, or reading the Bible) in preparation for conversion, and should be exhorted to do so.


Lewis's trilemma

One version was popularised by the scholar and writer C. S. Lewis.

(theology) An apologetic argument for the divinity of Jesus, claiming that if he was not divine then he must have been either evil or deluded.


ordo salutis

(theology) A series of conceptual steps within the Christian doctrine of salvation.


immanentism

immanentism (usually uncountable, plural immanentisms)

While some, like the early Church Fathers, still viewed it as the prison of the spirit, new emphasis came to be placed on the soul's incarceration in the flesh, the doctrine of immanentism.

1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 126:

(philosophy, theology) A doctrine based on immanence, especially the immanence of God.


Marcan priority

(theology) The hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was the first-written of the three Synoptic Gospels and was used as a source by the other two (Matthew and Luke).


Malebranchist

(philosophy, theology) One who subscribes to Malebranchism.


anthropopathetically

I ascribe no faculties at all to God, except it be anthropopathetically; as the Scripture ascribes eyes and hands to God; which must be understood as is beseeming the majesty of God.

1844, John Bramhall, The Works of the Most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall:

(theology, rare) Exhibiting human emotions.


katechon

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κατέχον (katékhon, “that which withholds”) or Ancient Greek κατέχων (katékhōn, “the one who withholds”).

der

(theology) Someone or something (of disputed identity) whose removal is necessary before the Antichrist can be fully manifested, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 in the Bible.


prosopon

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face, mask, person”).

bor+

(theology) The self-manifestation of an individual.


krypsis

From Ancient Greek κρύψις (krúpsis, “hiding, concealment”). Doublet of crypsis.

bor

(theology) The doctrine that Christ, during His state of humiliation, continued to possess in a veiled way the divine attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, etc.


theothanatology

en-noun

theothanatology (usually uncountable, plural theothanatologies)

It is no wonder that so many have felt humanity should overthrow such a God and be happier without him. Much of the theothanatology of the 1960s expressed optimism that civilization - particularly American civilization - was ready to do so at last.

1993, Marianthe Colakis, The classics in the American theater of the 1960s and early 1970s:

(philosophy, theology) A range of philosophical and theological explorations of the idea that God may be dead.


unipersonality

the unipersonality of Christ

(theology) The quality of being a single person.


hamartialogy

(theology) The part of theology dealing with the nature and effects of sin.


recreationism

Apparently the advocates of recreationism accept this; at least, I know of none who clearly stipulates that the identity-of-matter condition must be met.

2015, William Hasker, The Emergent Self:

(theology) The concept that the world may be conceived as being created anew at every instant in time.


ergism

Faith without works is dogma-righteousness, orthodoxism. Works without the foundation of faith are work-righteousness, ergism.

1867, Johann Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures:

Both enthusiasm and “ergism" are sheer illusion. Neither one is found in pure Christianity.

1900, The American Journal of Theology - Volume 4, Issue 1, page 146:

The two main forms of literalism are ergism and orthodoxy.

2015, Søren Kierkegaard, Bruce H. Kirmmse, K. Brian Söderquist, Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 2: Journals EE-KK, →ISBN:

(theology) The belief that good works are necessary for salvation.


subordinationism

(Christianity, theology) A doctrine regarding the Trinity, holding that the Son and possibly the Holy Spirit are inferior to the Father.


subordinationist

(Christianity, theology) A believer in subordinationism.


Protevangelium

Protevangelion (alternative)
Protoevangelion (alternative)
Protevangelium (alternative)

(theology) God's statement to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden about how the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head.


irenicism

irenicism (usually uncountable, plural irenicisms)

A striking feature of this volume is the pronounced irenicism of the Americans, Lindbeck of Yale and Quanbeck of the Luther Theological Seminary at St. Paul, in contrast to the unsparingly critical approach of the Europeans.

1965, New Catholic World, volume 202, page 117:

The elector Palatine, as self-appointed Calvinist leader, promoted his own, narrow form of irenicism to remain within the Peace by finding common ground with Lutherans.

2016, Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, Penguin, published 2017, page 122:

(theology, chiefly Christianity) Behaviour or belief that tends to resolve disputes between denominations or religions; irenical theology; conciliation.


effectual calling

He'll ſcreed you aff Effectual Calling, / As faſt as ony in the dwalling.— [...]

1801, Robert Burns, “The Inventory. In Answer to a Mandate by the Surveyor of the Taxes.”, in Poems Ascribed to Robert Burns, the Ayrshire Bard, […], Glasgow: […] Chapman & Lang, for Thomas Stewart, […], →OCLC, page 48:

(theology) The invitation to come to Christ which the elect receive.


cooperating grace

(theology) The Roman Catholic, Arminian and Socinian doctrine that the human will cooperates with the divine in the matter of saving grace.


documentary hypothesis

Out of this rare discovery have sprung the documentary hypothesis, the fragmentary hypothesis, and we know not how many more hypotheses, each of which has been maintained for a time, as self-evidently true, and then exploded.

1842, The Princeton Review, volume 14, page 205:

(theology) The hypothesis that the Pentateuch consists of two or more, usually four, originally distinct major documents.

oorkondenhypothese

literary-critical theory about the Penteteuch


single procession

(theology) The emanation of the Holy Spirit from the Father alone, not the Son.


double procession

(theology) The emanation of the Holy Spirit from both Father and Son.


covenantalism

(theology) An interpretive framework for the Bible, viewing the history (and future) of God's dealings with humankind through the lens of the various covenants described in the Scriptures.


dyothelism

From that day, dyothelism became the official doctrine of the Orthodox Church, both in the East and in the West; and in the eighth century it found a most subtle expounder in John of Damascus.

1891, Philip Schaff, Samuel Macauley Jackson, David Schley Schaff, A Religious Encyclopaedia:

Two years later Anastasius II reinstituted dyothelism, and the same bishops who had two years before vetoed dyothelism now changed their mind, and adopted it as the only true exposition of faith !

1894, John McClintock, James Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature:

Finally, the concept of divine adoption becomes a controlling feature of the theology of deification in Maximus, due to his concern to maintain dyothelism in christology, as well as in ascetic anthropology.

2002, Nicholas V. Sakharov, I Love, Therefore I Am: The Theological Legacy of Archimandrite Sophrony, →ISBN:

(Christianity, theology) The doctrine of two wills (human and divine) in Christ.


fish-hook theory

the fish-hook theory (canonical)
fishhook theory (alternative)

(Christianity, theology, informal) The Christus Victor theory of atonement.


ex opere operato

(theology) From the work worked; referring to sacraments deriving their power from Christ's work rather than the role of humans, and thus not requiring faith to be effective.


separationism

(theology) The belief that the human Jesus Christ was a separate being from the divine Christ.


Dyophysitic

(theology) Of or relating to the Dyophysites.


Dyophysitism

(theology) The doctrine of the Dyophysites.


receptionism

(theology) The Anglican doctrine that, during the Eucharist, the bread and wine remain unchanged after consecration, but that communicants receive the body and blood of Christ by faith when they consume the bread and wine.