Arminianist

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A follower of a theological stance emphasizing free will in salvation and opposing predestination ; an adherent of a Christian doctrinal position stressing conditional election and resistibility of grace ; one who supports the belief that divine grace can be rejected and that salvation is available to all through faith
2. An individual subscribing to a doctrine that prioritizes human choice in accepting salvation over predetermined election ; a believer in a Protestant interpretation advocating that God's grace enables but does not ensure salvation ; a proponent of a religious viewpoint that holds that free will cooperates with divine grace in the process of redemption
3. Someone who espouses a belief system asserting that salvation is conditional upon human acceptance rather than unalterable divine decree ; a person aligned with a theological framework that teaches resistible grace and the possibility of falling from grace ; one identified with a religious ideology that rejects strict predestination in favor of free human response to God's offer of salvation

Etymology: Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch theologian in the Netherlands whose followers, after his death in 1609, pressed the view that human beings can resist or accept divine grace, and that salvation is not fixed in advance. Their opponents, who held to predestination, gave them the name Arminians, and the label stuck to the movement itself. Arminianist is the form built on that name by adding the suffix "-ist", which English took from Latin "-ista", itself borrowed from Greek "-istēs" and ultimately tied to verbs ending in "-izein". The suffix marks a person who follows or practises something, so an Arminianist is simply an adherent of Arminianism. The base name also carries the Latin form of Arminius's own surname, which he had Latinised from the Dutch Harmensz.

Synonyms: Arminian