Formalism

Ceremonialism • Formality • Institutionalization

Dictionaries

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

formalism

formalism. The word is used in religious contexts in at least three senses. (1) Undue insistence on the outward observances of religion or the prescriptions of a moral code, with a corresponding neglect of the inner spirit or significance which the ‘forms’ were designed to safeguard.(2) In the 17th

Pocket Dictionary of Ethics

Formalism

formalism. The elevation of the outward form to the neglect of the inward substance; the reliance on the outward rituals practiced by a ^*community with little regard for the values to which the ceremonies are intended to point. Ethical formalism, in turn, views the ethical life as the performance of

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