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Anabaptism

Anabaptism

1 9.9
A Christian movement from the 1500s that teaches baptism only for believing adults and separation of church and state
  • noun
  • /ˌænəˈbæptɪzəm/
translation icon : anabaptismo
  • Global Anabaptism: Stories from the global Mennonite church

Examples

  • Anabaptism advocates for adult baptism, emphasizing the importance of personal belief.

  • Accordingly, in their opposition to Anabaptism as well as the Quakers, they expressed unreservedly their repugnance for this extremely dangerous and impractical theory.

    Blog text (31)
  • See, for example, Walter Klaassen's Anabaptism: Neither Catholic nor Protestant (Waterloo, Ontario: Conrad Press, 1973).

    Academic text (1992)
  • When the Christian's dual citizenship is denied (or ignored), we see the rise of asceticism, pietism, radical pacifism, and Anabaptism.

    Blog text (30)
  • The principles of Anabaptism stress the separation of church and state in society.

  • During the 16th century, Anabaptism emerged as a significant movement within Protestant Christianity.

Synonyms

9.6

A Christian group that does not baptize babies but baptizes only adults who say they believe

is a broader historical movement that also stresses Bible authority and church state separation

Surface Forms

Anabaptism singular
Anabaptisms plural

Morphology

Anabaptism = anabaptist (semi-transparent) = ana + bapt + ism

Formally built from 'anabaptist' + '-ism', but the theological nuance (rebaptism/16th-century movement) and the prefix 'ana-' are not obvious to many learners.

Etymology

Anabaptism comes from Greek parts ana- (meaning 'again', like English 're-') and baptize (meaning 'to dip' or 'to wash'). So Anabaptism names the 16th-century movement that taught people should be baptized again as believing adults, not as babies.