scholasticism

noun

scho·​las·​ti·​cism skə-ˈla-stə-ˌsi-zəm 

1

capitalized

a

: a philosophical movement dominant in western Christian civilization from the 9th until the 17th century and combining religious dogma with the mystical and intuitional tradition of patristic philosophy especially of St. Augustine and later with Aristotelianism

b

: neo-scholasticism

2

a

: close adherence to the traditional teachings or methods of a school or sect

b

: pedantic adherence to scholarly methods

Examples of scholasticism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Karnes is most at ease in medieval scholasticism, the subject of her 2011 book Imagination, Meditation, and Cognition in the Middle Ages, in which her focus is on Aristotle’s concept of the imagination and its resonance in Christian thought. —Marina Warner, The New York Review of Books, 2 Feb. 2023

Leo vocalized the importance, for the survival of the Catholic Magisterium, of systematic, intellectually rigorous approaches to philosophy and theology characteristic of medieval scholasticism. —Peter Hammond Schwartz, The New Republic, 3 Feb. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1609, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing scholasticism

• neo-scholasticism

• neo-scholasticism