What is "quietism"

Quietism \Qui"et*ism\, n. [Cf. F. qui['e]tisme.]

1. Peace or tranquillity of mind; calmness; indifference; apathy; dispassion; indisturbance; inaction.

2. (Eccl. Hist.) The system of the Quietists, who maintained that religion consists in the withdrawal of the mind from worldly interests and anxieties and its constant employment in the passive contemplation of God and his attributes.

1680s, from Italian quietismo, literally "passiveness," from quieto "calm, at rest," from Latin quietus (see quiet (adj.)). Originally in reference to the mysticism of Miguel Molinos (1640-1697), Spanish priest in Rome, whose "Guida spirituale" was published 1675 and condemned by the Inquisition in 1685. Related: Quietist.

n. 1 A form of mysticism involving quiet contemplation. 2 A state of passive quietness.

n. a form of religious mysticism requiring withdrawal from all human effort and passive contemplation of God

Quietism may refer to:

• Quietism (Christian philosophy), the 17th-century Christian philosophy
• Quietism (philosophy), an approach to the subject that sees the role of philosophy as broadly therapeutic or remedial
• Political quietism in Islam

Quietism is the name given (especially in Roman Catholic Church theology) to a set of Christian beliefs that rose in popularity in through France, Italy, and Spain during the late 1670s and 1680s, were particularly associated with the writings of Miguel de Molinos (and subsequently François Malaval and Madame Guyon), and which were condemned as heresy by Pope Innocent XI in the papal bull Coelestis Pastor of 1687. The “Quietist” heresy was seen to consist of wrongly elevating ‘contemplation’ over ‘meditation’, intellectual stillness over vocal prayer, and interior passivity over pious action in an account of mystical prayer, spiritual growth and union with God (one in which, the accusation ran, there existed the possibility of achieving a sinless state and union with the Christian Godhead).

Since the late seventeenth century, “Quietism” has functioned (especially within Roman Catholic theology, though also to an extent within Protestant theology), as the shorthand for accounts which are perceived to fall foul of the same theological errors, and thus to be heretical. As such, the term has come to be applied to beliefs far outside its original context. The term quietism was not used until the 17th century, so some writers have dubbed the expression of such errors before this era as ‘pre-quietism’.

Quietism in philosophy is an approach to the subject that sees the role of philosophy as broadly therapeutic or remedial. Quietist philosophers believe that philosophy has no positive thesis to contribute, but rather that its value is in defusing confusions in the linguistic and conceptual frameworks of other subjects, including non-quietist philosophy. By re-formulating supposed problems in a way that makes the misguided reasoning from which they arise apparent, the quietist hopes to put an end to humanity's confusion, and help return to a state of intellectual quietude.