Some Unusual, or Generally Unfamiliar, Theological Terms

This "page" on Greek and Latin roots, a projected 70 essays, devotes special attention to significant Greek and Latin roots that have shaped the English language. One way to do that is to mow through the roots, which I have begun to do in the preceding essays and will continue to do after these three. But another way to understand these roots is to look at a field of study and illustrate how certain important words from that field are built on these roots. I have already written on several theological terms (such as iscariotic, peccavi, hamartiology, poimenics, ponerology, dorcastry--search in the "search box" above to the right for essays on this site examining these words), but there are many more. In this and the next two essays, I propose to elucidate the following twelve terms: (1) hermeneutics; (2) psilanthropy; (3) piacular; (4) nullifidian; (5) theologaster; (6) apocrpha(l); (7) mortiferous; (8) vaticinal; (9) barathrum; (10) jeremiad; (11) soterial; and (12) glossolalia. Almost all of these provide, as it were, vistas from which we can scan the verbal landscape and discover even more terms that are theologically-oriented. So, let the fun begin.

Hermeneutics

About seven or eight terms cluster around this word, which is formed from two Greek words, hermeneuein (to interpret), and tekne (the art or skill of). Thus, hermeneutics is the "art or science of interpretation." It first appeared in English in 1737 and has always been associated with the principles of interpretation of Scripture. A person who interprets is a hermeneut or a hermeneutist or hermeneutician. Hermeneutics is generally distinguished from exegesis, which is the actual or practical exposition of a particular passage of Scripture. Thus, a hermeneutical principle might be "Scripture interprets Scripture" or "the rule of faith is the touchstone of Scriptural reading" while exegetical principles might be to read the text according to the grammatical sense or to pay close attention to the significance of various words in Koine or Classical Greek.

We also have the word epexegetic and epexegesis in English, though they aren't necessarily theological terms. These words have appeared in loads of spelling bees, though, and so I will comment on them. Literally meaning "to recount in detail," epexegesis is a "subjoined explanation or elucidation." To make this simple, an epexegesis is simply a clarifying sentence or clause. The best way to recognize an epexegetical statement is to see if it is preceded by "that is." Something that is given by way of an explanation, then, is epexegetic. From 1621: "The latter part of the Apostles assertion is an epexegesis, or explication, of the former." But the term may also be used negatively to characterize someone's redundancy. "These jottings of old age, interesting as they are, err on the side of redundancy and epexegesis."

Psilanthropy and Piacular

These can be handled more briefly. The former was the coinage of Coleridge in the early 19th century. The Greek behind psilanthropy is psilos, meaning "bare" or "mere," and anthropos, meaning "human" or "man." Thus, psilanthropy, to be distinguished from philanthropy, is the "doctrine that Jesus Christ was a mere man." No one of the early Christians would have been so bold to proclaim this, though Coleridge in 1810 could say: "The conclusion is, that between the Homoousian scheme and mere Psilanthropism there is no intelligible medium." Oops, it looks like we need a word on Homoousion. This is the Greek word meaning "of the same nature" and was the word used by the Orthodox Christians in the 4th century Council of Chalcedon to stress the "same nature" of Christ and the Father. The Orthodox, or the Athanasians, were opposed by the Arians, or the Homoiousians, who claimed that Christ was merely "like" the Father and not of the same nature as the Father. Well, Coleridge collapsed various distinctions among non-Orthodox theologians and proclaimed in this passage that you are either a believer in the Orthodox doctrine of the full divinity of Christ or you must believe that Christ is merely human. For most of us today, this isn't a real burning issue, but the very appearance of the word opens us to a new world, where people fought over Christian theology and where the difference between Homoousian and Homoiousian is a mere "i." In Greek the "i" is an "iota," making the difference an "iota of difference"--the origin of our phrase.

I don't know why I promise I can handle things "more briefly" when I usually don't. So, rushing on to piacular... The word is derived from the classical Latin piacularis, meaning "expiatory" or "requiring expiation." The word in English means "making atonement" or "expiation." Thus, a piacular act is one in which forgiveness is obtained. The Puritan theologian John Owen, in his The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, wrote: "He made his soule an offering for sinne, a piacular sacrifice." An 18th century commentator on Scripture could write: "Their piacular Victims were Ransoms for the Life of the Offender." The word can have a secular connotation in our own day, as when Kobe Bryant bought an expensive necklace as a piacular offering to regain his wife's favor in the wake of his ill-advised extra-marital sexual liaison.

Nullifidian

The roots of nullifidian are easy to divine: nullus, meaning "none" or "nothing," and fide, meaning "faith." A nullifidian, therefore, is one who professes no faith or religion. A nullifidian is either an atheist or a skeptic in matters of religion. Diogenes, the Athenian cynic, was touted as one of the first nullifidians in Western culture. An 1816 quotation puts nullifidian with other religious terms: "In their eyes, a lukewarm Presbyterian was little better than a Prelatist, an Anti-covenanter, and a Nullifidian." I don't know who "they" was in this quotation, but a word is necessary about "prelatists" and "anti-covenanters." A prelatist is one who supports "prelates," that is (epexegetic words!) clerics of high rank such as bishops or archbishops. A prelatist supports the episcopal church. A covenanter is a kind of Presbyterian who took a solemn oath to oppose efforts by England to impose the Episcopal Church on Scotland. This "oath and covenant" was sealed in the 1630s. Thus, the Covenanters, who came to this country and became the Reformed Presbyterian Church, were a hyper-Calvinistic group. It wouldn't have been hard to find someone running around England in the 19th century who was "anti-covenanter." I suppose you didn't know that a lukewarm Presbyterian was, in one author's reckoning, little better than a prelatist, an anti-covenanter or a nullifidian. But now you know what the last three are, and your life has been enriched...

Let that suffice for today; tomorrow, we will examine more of these theological terms.

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