latitudinarian love

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Holding or expressing broad or tolerant views, especially in religious matters.
  • noun A member of a group of Anglican Christians active from the 17th through the 19th century who were opposed to dogmatic positions of the Church of England and allowed reason to inform theological interpretation and judgment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Embracing a wide circle or range; having free scope; not conforming to a strict code of morals; roving; libertine.
  • Characterized by latitude or independence of thought, or by forbearance from strict insistence upon the usual standards of belief or opinion; especially, not rigidly strict in religious principles or views; tolerant of free-thinking or heresy: as, latitudinarian opinions or doctrines.
  • noun In. Eng. church hist., one of a school of Episcopal divines who in the seventeenth century strove to unito the dissenters with the Episcopal Church by insisting only on those doctrines which were held in common by both, and who, while they maintained the wisdom of the episcopal form of government and ritual, denied their divine origin and authority.
  • noun Hence, in later times, one who regards with comparative indifference specific creeds, methods of church government, and forms of public worship: generally used opprobriously.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who is moderate in his notions, or not restrained by precise settled limits in opinion; one who indulges freedom in thinking.
  • noun (Eng. Eccl. Hist.) A member of the Church of England, in the time of Charles II., who adopted more liberal notions in respect to the authority, government, and doctrines of the church than generally prevailed.
  • noun (Theol.) One who departs in opinion from the strict principles of orthodoxy.
  • adjective Not restrained; not confined by precise limits.
  • adjective Indifferent to a strict application of any standard of belief or opinion; hence, deviating more or less widely from such standard; lax in doctrine
  • adjective Lax in moral or religious principles.

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

  • adjective Tolerant, especially of other people's religious views.
  • noun A person who is tolerant of others' religious views.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective unwilling to accept authority or dogma (especially in religion)
  • noun a person who is broad-minded and tolerant (especially in standards of religious belief and conduct)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin lātitūdō, lātitūdin-, latitude; see latitude + –arian.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin latitudo ("latitude") +‎ -arian

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Examples

  • Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England; for it became what was called latitudinarian, -- that is, broad in temper, inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.

    Unitarianism in America George Willis Cooke 1885

  • Several of the bishops were, in fact, "latitudinarian" or "Arminian" in doctrine, wanderers from the severity of Knox and Calvin.

    A Short History of Scotland Andrew Lang 1878

  • "latitudinarian" novels constitute a remarkable portion of the recent romantic literature of Germany, we perceive has entered a convent.

    The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 Various

  • See J.G. E. Pocock's typically conclusive summary: The ideal of politeness had first appeared in the restoration, where it formed part of the latitudinarian campaign to replace prophetic by sociable religiosity.

    Notes on 'Post-Secular Conviviality' 2008

  • The Church of England's latitudinarian moderation could satisfy the mind but it could not reach the heart. p.

    Supremacy and Survival elena maria vidal 2009

  • But a Justice who subscribes to the view that the Constitution's makers intended the judiciary to be the prime headwind against impetuous and myopic Congresses and Presidents will readily embrace latitudinarian interpretations of the text to fulfill the judicial role and blunt the political branches, he says.

    William Fisher: Sotomayor: The Umpires Strike Out! 2009

  • Given my general position on constitutional interpretation, I certainly don't want to argue, as a theoretical matter, that the Impeachment Clause might not be open to the latitudinarian interpretations suggested by some of the contributors to this thread.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The Church of England's latitudinarian moderation could satisfy the mind but it could not reach the heart. p.

    Archive 2009-04-01 elena maria vidal 2009

  • Lucy the fanaticism of some of her own communion, while she intimated, rather than expressed, horror at the latitudinarian principles which she had been taught to think connected with the prelatical form of church government.

    The Bride of Lammermoor 2008

  • I take a very latitudinarian view of poetry — and literature.

    Progress report on online poetry ... Frank Wilson 2006

Comments

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  • from Trollope. I love this one.

    October 1, 2007

  • "And yet the Latitudinarian that I love, is one that is only so in Charity; for the Freedom I recommend is no Scepticism in Judgment, and much less so in Practice."

    - William Penn, 'Fruits of Solitude'.

    September 8, 2009

  • To some he's a bad grammarian,

    To others a mad contrarian,

    But Ernest prefers

    Unfetttered words.

    He's truly a latitudinarian.

    Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit

    September 14, 2017