Infralapsary

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. A Christian theological position holding that God's election of the saved comes after foreseeing who will believe, rather than before the foundation of the world
2. The doctrine asserting that divine predestination is based on God's prior knowledge of how individuals will freely choose to accept or reject faith
3. A view within Protestant theology maintaining that God's decree of election depends on His foreknowledge of human free will and individual faith decisions

Etymology: Infralapsarian, the adjective form, and infralapsarianism, the noun for the doctrine, come from Christian theology and were coined in the seventeenth century, when Protestant theologians debated the order of God's decrees. The word is built from Latin "infra" meaning "below" or "after," and "lapsus," from "labi," "to fall," the same root behind "lapse." Together they describe a view that God decreed the election of some people to salvation after considering the Fall of Adam, rather than before it. The opposing position was called supralapsarian, from Latin "supra," "above" or "before." Supralapsarians held that God's decision to save and damn people came logically before the decree to permit the Fall. The two words are a matched pair, and both were formed on the same pattern, so the terms are less old than their Latin parts suggest. Their meaning depends entirely on that single theological question, which is why they rarely appear outside discussions of Calvinist doctrine.

Synonyms: infralapsarian

Antonyms: supralapsarian