Legalism meaning

lē'gə-lĭz'əm
A philosophy of focusing on the text of written law to the exclusion of the intent of law, elevating strict adherence to law over justice, mercy, grace and common sense.
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The doctrine of salvation by good works.
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Overly strict or rigid adherence to the law or to a religious or moral code.
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A legal term or expression, especially one that is unnecessarily technical.
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Strict, often too strict and literal, adherence to law or to a code.
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A legal axiom; a statement couched as a proverb expressing a rule of law.
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Origin of legalism

  • legal +"Ž -ism
    From Wiktionary

Legalism Sentence Examples

  • 10), heral:Is the advent of that system of formal legalism which thought that all religious duty could be reduced to a system of set rules.

  • From the theology of John Murray, who like Ballou has been called "the father of American Universalism," he differed in that he divested Universalism of every trace of Calvinism and opposed legalism and trinitarian views.

  • Legalism was joined with sacramentarianism, doubling the power of the priest.

  • 9) there are suggestions of the legalism which Cerinthus advocated.

  • 12 f.), and, harping still on Abraham, the apostle essays, with fresh rabbinic dialectic, to establish Christianity over legalism as the free and final religion for men, applying this to the moral situation of the Galatians themselves (v.

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Words near legalism in the Dictionary