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antinomian

antinomian

1 9.9
A person who says faith alone makes following moral rules not needed for being saved
  • noun
  • /ˌæntɪˈnoʊmiən/
  • Formal
: antinomiano
  • As a host of revisionists have told us, typical religious distinctions between Protestant and Catholic, Conformist and Antinomian, always appear more straightforward and clear-cut to the historian than they did to those immersed in the press of events.

Examples

  • Many antinomians believe that faith alone can lead to salvation, disregarding traditional moral laws.

  • Among antinomians, it is more Eaton than Crisp who assimilates the flowings forth of conjugal spirituality.

    Academic text (2006)
  • On the other hand, when it comes to Jesus' own unpleasant teaching on serving God and Mammon, we have been either experts at casuistry or antinomian to the core.

    Blog text (33)
  • A quietist covenant almost dissolves the continuum linking Puritan to antinomian.

    Academic text (2006)
  • His work meticulously reconstructs "enormous swathes of intellectual, cultural, and even personal terrain" that tied antinomians to their more mainstream contemporaries.

    Academic text (2018)
  • However, the Long Parliament (assembled in November 1640) had the Laudians in its sights, though the question of whether or not MPs had antinomians in their bellies can be, in the present state of knowledge, a matter for speculation only.

    Academic text (2006)
  • For Como, the fierce struggle between Stuart antinomians, or "Familists" as they were sometimes called, and their more orthodox peers belies a shared, though often convoluted, religious worldview.

    Academic text (2018)
  • As an antinomian, she argued that the teachings of grace nullified the need for strict moral guidelines.

  • Historically, antinomians have often debated the relevance of moral laws in the light of their faith.

How Antinomian

antinomian
  • Formal
1 9.9
radical
91 6.3
dissenter
22 7.2
conformist
6 5.7

Surface Forms

antinomian singular
antinomians plural

Morphology

antinomian = nomian (opaque) = anti + nom + ian

The word is built from the classical elements anti- + nom- + -ian, but the root nom- is not transparent to most learners and the specialized theological meaning is not easy to infer.

Etymology

The noun antinomian comes from anti- 'against' and nomos 'law', so it literally means 'against the law'. So an antinomian is a person who believes moral rules are not needed, especially in religion, and you can remember the nom- root from autonomy ('self-law').