English

Noun

manism ‎(uncountable)

1. ancestor-worship
   • 1794, Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason:

     As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species of atheism; a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to believe in a man, rather than in God. It is a compound, made up chiefly of manism, with but a little deism, and is as near to atheism as twilight is to darkness.

   • 1837 May 1, “Reformers not schismatics”, in The Millennial Harbinger, volume 1, number 5, page 195:

     It is not he that refused to subscribe, but he that constrains subscription to some manism, or humanism, or opinion, or tradition not taught in the scriptures.

   • 1885, R. B. Godfrey, The World's Spiritual Conquest Or Its Conversion to Christ:

     Now, one of the worst features of Roman Catholicism is its popery, or manism. The Pope is the soul of the whole system. Remove him, therefore, and nothing remains but a headless and soulless body, which, like the tail of the snake, may writhe awhile after its head is severed. So with respect to parts of Protestantism. Remove the manism from them, and Christians are at once together and one in Christ. Manism, therefore, is the great obstacle to Christian purity, unanimity, and success.

   • 1975, Ugo Bianchi, The History of Religions, page 36:

     Among these beings are many of the spirits of animism and manism which are frequently, but not always, considered to be subordinate to a Supreme Being of a theistic or monotheistist type, but which are nevertheless often systematically made the subject of a popular worship, awe and veneration which are clearly orientated, spiritually and ethically (or unethically) in another direction.

   • 1991, Zofia Józefa Zdybicka, Person and Religion: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, page 156:

     The variety of images in which the sacred reality is apprehended is very rich; for some scholars this serves as a basis for distinguishing the different types of religion (animism, fetishism, manism, totemism, polytheism, henotheism, monotheism […]

   • 1997, Thomas A. Green, Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art:

     The term manism is derived from the Latin manes, meaning "departed spirits, ghosts, souls of the deceased.

Related terms

• manist
• manistic

Translations