predestinarian, n. and a.
(prɪdɛstɪˈnɛərɪən)
[f. predestine v. + -arian (in Trinitarian, etc.).]
A. n. One who believes or maintains the theological doctrine of predestination, esp. in an extreme form; a fatalist.
| 1667 Decay Chr. Piety ix. ¶20 Why does the predestinarian so adventurously climb into heaven, to ransack the celestial archives? 1741 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 302 There are several Predestinarians in our societies. 1782 W. F. Martyn Geog. Mag. I. 41 The Turks being great predestinarians. 1882 W. H. Fremantle in Dict. Chr. Biog. III. 46/2 (Hieronymus) Jerome is not like Augustine, a thorough⁓going predestinarian, but a ‘synergist’, maintaining the coexistence of free will. |
B. adj. Of, pertaining to, concerning, or relating to predestination; holding or maintaining the doctrine of predestination.
| a 1638 Mede Wks. (1672) p. xix, By way of Reply to the objected authority of S. Austin as to some part of the Predestinarian Controversie. 1701 tr. Le Clerc's Prim. Fathers (1702) 382 Errors to which the Divines of Marseilles gave the name of Predestinarian Heresie. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. vii. 402 Those who did not hold the predestinarian theory were branded with reproach by the names of freewillers and Pelagians. 1843 J. Martineau Chr. Life (1867) 407 Every Fatalist or Predestinarian scheme destroys merit. |
Hence predestiˈnarianism, the belief or doctrine of predestinarians.
| 1722 De Foe Plague (Rtldg.) 245 A kind of a Turkish Predestinarianism. 1831 R. Blakey Free-will 108 Many systems and views, both in morals and religion, are maintained upon a more slender foundation than that of predestinarianism. 1882–3 Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 896/2 The Lutheran Church..attempted to take a middle course between predestinarianism..and synergism. |