externalism

American  

[ik-stur-nl-iz-uhm] / ɪkˈstɜr nlˌɪz əm /

noun

1. attention to externals, especially excessive attention to externals, as in religion.

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externalism British  

/ ɪkˈstɜːnəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. exaggerated emphasis on outward form, esp in religious worship

2. a philosophical doctrine holding that only objects that can be perceived by the senses are real; phenomenalism

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Other Word Forms

• externalist
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of externalism

First recorded in 1855–60; external + -ism

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

externalism

The second reason may well be that there are different coping mechanisms among minorities that are more externalism than internalizing.

From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2013

One was saved from the perils of a mere externalism, and was driven inward on the unseen realities which ceremonial may sometimes obscure.

From Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography by George William Erskine Russell

Some of these are good enough, but they nearly all culminate in an ambitious externalism.

From A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed. by William Chauncey Bartlett

He leaves them to our own thought, but they all point to the one great lesson that God needs not the service of externalism, but the preparation of the heart.

From Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 7 A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of the Lives of More Than 200 of the Most Prominent Personages in History by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne

Their place in Israel was to be the champions of righteousness, and—I was going to say—the knights of God, as against law and ceremonial and externalism.

From Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John by Alexander Maclaren

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