antilegalism

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noun

A belief that salvation is attained or maintained not just by adherence to the requirements of moral law, but also by worship, faith, or grace.

“Near-synonym: nonlegalism”

Scrabble 15

Meanings

noun

alternative anti-legalism

  1. lifestyleA belief that salvation is attained or maintained not just by adherence to the requirements of moral law, but also by worship, faith, or grace.

    Near-synonym: nonlegalism

    1 more example

    In this coinage of the great apostle extremes meet; legalism and antilegalism; legalism in so far as it implies that God, as the Judaists contended demanded righteousness from all, antilegalism in so fare as it implies that the righteousness which God demands he at the same time bestows.

    1896, William Rainey Harper, Ernest DeWitt Burton, Shailer Mathews, The Biblical World - Volume 7, page 10

    Synonyms: antinomianism, antinomism, solifidianism, nonlegalism · Antonyms: legalism, nomism

  2. political philosophyAn opposition to slavishly following the law, especially the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law; sometimes also an attitude that questions the legitimacy of the legal system and the judicial infrastructure.

    Near-synonym: nonlegalism

    3 more examples

    Understanding antilegalism in this manner helps us to read French legal dramas in a different way.

    2014, Michael Asimow, Kathryn Brown, David Papke, Law and Popular Culture: International Perspectives, page 328

    For many commentatiors, antilegalism is a characteristic trait of Hegelianism, which thus finds itself far from the dominant opinion within postrevolutionary political philosophy, which saw rights as the inalienable condition of political freedom.

    2018, Jean-François Kervégan, The Actual and the Rational: Hegel and Objective Spirit, page 27

    Those symbols and images of acts of civil disobedience that can turn a nation toward a better and more moral future path, in turn, merged seamlessly with the near mythic antilegalism of our Consitution, and its First and Fourteenth Amendments that target oppresive and discriminatory law, to eventually feed a narrative of civil rights as not only birthed by disobedience but as being in toto antithetical to law, and aligned instead with consitutionalism's most non-civic and atomistic inclinations.

    2019, Robin West, Civil Rights: Rethinking their Natural Foundation, page 257

    Synonyms: nonlegalism · Antonyms: legalism

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA belief that salvation is attained or maintained not just by adherence to the requirements of moral law, but also by worship, faith, or grace.

nounAn opposition to slavishly following the law, especially the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law; sometimes also an attitude that questions the legitimacy of the legal system and the judicial infrastructure.

Opposite

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

antilegalism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antilegalism

MLA

“antilegalism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antilegalism. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “antilegalism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antilegalism.

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