Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Christianity The doctrine of the Docetes, that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body and was ultimately of celestial substance.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Docetae, Docetæ +‎ -ism, from Ancient Greek doketai, docetai ("phantasmists"), coined 197–203 CE by Serapion of Antioch, from δοκέω (dokeō, "I seem"), δόκησις (dókēsis, "apparition, phantom"). Related to latter component of synecdoche.

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Examples

  • When Ignatius had to argue against the twin arguments of Gnostic docetism on one hand and works – based salvation on the other he did so with the books left by the Apostles.

    Blind Faith? 2009

  • The Greek approach influenced the early Christian view, called docetism, that Jesus was a spirit with only a phantom body.

    Can Yoga Be Christian? Stephen Prothero 2010

  • Just because Greek Gnostics, for instance, could not deny the truth of Jesus 'Crucifixion and Resurrection and had to find a way (your docetism) to account for this truth in their beliefs doesn't make them Christian.

    Blind Faith? 2009

  • I think the traditional interpretation that we are dealing with an intra-Christian dispute about some form of docetism the idea that Jesus had walked on earth but not in human form is the more plausible.

    Tacitus on Mythicism James F. McGrath 2010

  • It certainly includes a harrowing of Hell, and Ignatius, if he is arguing against docetism would then be arguing against Jesus not physically going to Hell in the Trallians passage.

    Mythunderstanding The Criteria Of Authenticity James F. McGrath 2010

  • Perhaps you could give me the mainstream, historical understanding of docetism so that I can be corrected.

    Mythunderstanding The Criteria Of Authenticity James F. McGrath 2010

  • I am sure readers of this blog would be interested to know what sources your unusual understanding of docetism is based on.

    Mythunderstanding The Criteria Of Authenticity James F. McGrath 2010

  • How does his statement in Magnesians argue in any way against docetism?

    Mythunderstanding The Criteria Of Authenticity James F. McGrath 2010

  • How does Ignatius' statement in Magnesians argue in any way against docetism?

    Mythunderstanding The Criteria Of Authenticity James F. McGrath 2010

  • As suggested earlier, hat is being offered here as an ostensible defense of orthodoxy is, ironically, the heresy of docetism.

    Sinful Certainty James F. McGrath 2009

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