The Collaborative International Dictionary
Syncretistic \Syn`cre*tis"tic\, a.
Pertaining to, or characterized by, syncretism; as, a syncretistic mixture of the service of Jehovah and the worship of idols.
Of or pertaining to Syncretists.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Relating to a historical tendency for a language (such as English) to reduce its use of inflection. 2 Relating to the merging of two ideals, organizations or languages into one.
WordNet
adj. relating to a historical tendency for a language to reduce its use of inflections; "modern English is a syncretic language" [syn: syncretic, syncretical, syncretistical]
of or characterized by syncretism [syn: syncretic, syncretical, syncretistical]
Usage examples of "syncretistic".
The Simonian system at most might be named, on the basis of the syncretistic religion founded by Simon Magus.
But no less probable is the assumption that the great Hellenic Gnostic schools arose spontaneously, in the sense of having been independently developed out of the elements to which undoubtedly the Asiatic cults also belonged, without being influenced in any way by Syrian syncretistic efforts.
But we need no names here, as a syncretistic, ascetic Judaism could and did arise everywhere in Palestine and the Diaspora.
Apart from syncretistic or Gnostic Jewish Christianity, there is but one group of Jewish Christians holding various shades of opinion, and these from the beginning called themselves Nazarenes as well as Ebionites.
Gospel, at the time when it was proclaimed among the Jews, was not only law, but theology, and indeed syncretistic theology.
It may even be said that in theology the boundaries between the orthodox Judaism of the Pharisees and a syncretistic Judaism were of an elastic kind.
But while those common Jewish Christians drew from this the inference that the whole of the Old Testament must be adhered to in its traditional sense and in all its ordinances, and while the larger Christendom secured for itself the whole of the Old Testament by deviating from the ordinary interpretation, those syncretistic Jewish Christians separated from the Old Testament, as interpolations, whatever did not agree with their purer moral conceptions and borrowed speculations.
It must be reserved for an accurate investigation to ascertain whether those modified versions which betray clear marks of Hellenic origin, were made within syncretistic Judaism itself, or whether they are to be traced back to Catholic writers.
They must be used with great caution even in seeking to determine the tendencies and inner history of syncretistic Jewish Christianity.
The Pseudo-Clementines may, to some extent, be used, though with caution, in determining the doctrines of syncretistic Jewish Christianity.
They were meant to set forth briefly the reasons which forbid our assigning to syncretistic Jewish Christianity, on the basis of the Pseudo-Clementines, a place in the history of the genesis of the Catholic Church and its doctrine.
We know better, but still very imperfectly, certain forms of the syncretistic Jewish Christianity, from the Philosoph.
Jewish forerunners Osseni, we may conclude, that in many regions where there were Jewish Christians they yielded to the propaganda of the Elkesaite doctrines, and that in the fourth century there was no other syncretistic Jewish Christianity besides the various shades of Elkesaites.
This syncretistic Judaism had indeed a significance for the history of the world, not, however, in the history of Christianity, but for the origin of Islam.
I value most about Maurice is this flair of his for syncretistic thinking.