anthropism

A1N1T1H4R1O1P3I1S1M3

noun

The belief that human beings have a spiritual nature beyond the physical body characterized by in-dwelling Divinity.

Scrabble 17

Meanings

nounanthropism (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe belief that human beings have a spiritual nature beyond the physical body characterized by in-dwelling Divinity.

    Homeric, and to an extent Hesiodic, myth amounts to "perfected anthropism," depicting the divine-made-human

    1992, David Kolb, New Perspectives on Hegel's Philosophy of Religion, →ISBN, page 67
    3 more examples

    Such a representation would present a real difficulty, if we were obliged to understand all this in its strict literal import, implying, as it would, very unworthy conceptions of God on the part of the writer. The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of a prevailing anthropism which characterises the whole narrative.

    1866, John Quarry, Genesis and Its Authorship: Two Disserations, page 108

    I have seen the question asked "why should mind have a body?" the answer may well run "to mediate between it and other mind". It might be objected that such a view is undiluted 'anthropism.' To that we might reply, anthropism seems the present aim of the planet though presumably not its enduring aim.

    1979, John Carew Eccles, The Human Mystery: The GIFFORD Lectures., →ISBN, page 2

    In transitioning from anywhere to everywhere, we must reinvent the means of reading the world as containing both an autograph—though we do not presume to attach it either to a divinity or to an anthropism—and an hermeneutic.

    2014, G. V. Loewen, Place Meant: Hermeneutic Landscapes of the Spatial Self, →ISBN, page 172
  2. uncountableThe belief that human beings are fundamentally different from everything else in nature and that the world was made for them.

    Actually we are guilty of anthropism, not anthropomorphism, a guilt shared with an increasing number of scientists, for the universe and our place in the universe are guilty of anthropism as well.

    2009, Benjamin Wiker, Jonathan Witt, A Meaningful World, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    Such a representation would present a real difficulty, if we were obliged to understand all this in its strict literal import, implying, as it would, very unworthy conceptions of God on the part of the writer. The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of a prevailing anthropism which characterises the whole narrative.

    1866, John Quarry, Genesis and Its Authorship: Two Disserations, page 108

    Philosophy is absolutely opposed to theology, anthropism to theism ; but this must not be taken to imply that theism is utterly false, or that anthropism is atheistic, for all that is meant is that the anthropistic outlook and point of departure has come into its own in modern philosophy.

    1919, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, The Spirit of Russia

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Cite this entry
APA

anthropism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anthropism

MLA

“anthropism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anthropism. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “anthropism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anthropism.

Source: anthropism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.