ecclesiasticism

[ih-klee-zee-as-tuh-siz-uhm]

noun

1. ecclesiastical principles, practices, or spirit.

2. devotion, especially excessive devotion, to the principles or interests of the church.

ecclesiasticism

/ ɪˌkliːzɪˈæstɪˌsɪzəm /

noun

1. exaggerated attachment to the practices or principles of the Christian Church

Other Word Forms

• antiecclesiasticism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of ecclesiasticism¹

First recorded in 1860–65; ecclesiastic + -ism

Example Sentences

The piece is about ecclesiasticism, and the big but contained joy that informs the act of creativity—along with power and elegance and modesty.

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He thus extended the meaning of the word far beyond the narrow range of ecclesiasticism.

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But the moral order is no more a part of ecclesiasticism than earthquakes are.

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Those who formed the system of Christian ecclesiasticism never could afford to have a conscience.

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Sacerdotal ecclesiasticism is Christianity that has lost the Aristotelian disinterestedness of devotion to intellectual and social ends higher and wider than its own institutional aggrandisement.

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