: the rationalistic doctrines and anti-Trinitarian theological movement originating in the middle of the 16th century in Italy and developed in Poland under the leadership of Socinus who denied the tenets of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the personality of the Devil, the native and total depravity of man, substitutionary atonement, the efficacy of the sacraments, and the eternity of future punishment and affirmed instead the tenets that Christ was a man miraculously conceived by the Virgin Mary, that the Holy Spirit is a power or influence exerted by God, that human sin is the imitation of Adam's sin, that salvation is something to be achieved by the imitation of Christ's virtue, and that the Bible is to be interpreted by and as being in accord with human reason
Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Copy Citation
Share