• unwilling to accept authority or dogma (especially in religion)


    latitudinarian meaning & definition 1 of latitudinarian.


  • a person who is broad-minded and tolerant (especially in standards of religious belief and conduct)

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 2 of latitudinarian.


  • Tolerant, especially of other peoples religious views.

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 3 of latitudinarian.


  • Not restrained; not confined; thinking or acting at large.

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 4 of latitudinarian.


  • One who departs from orthodoxy.

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 5 of latitudinarian.


  • Latitudinarians, or latitude men, were initially a group of 17th-century English theologians – clerics and academics – from the University of Cambridge who were moderate Anglicans (members of the Church of England). In particular, they believed that adhering to very specific doctrines, liturgical practices, and church organizational forms, as did the Puritans, was not necessary and could be harmful: The sense that one had special instructions from God made individuals less amenable to moderation and compromise, or to reason itself. Thus, the latitudinarians supported a broad-based (sensu lato, with laxitude) Protestantism. They were later referred to as broad church (see also Inclusivism).
    Examples of the latitudinarian philosophy underlying the theology were found among the Cambridge Platonists and Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici. Additionally, the term latitudinarian has been applied to ministers of the Scottish Episcopal Church who were educated at the Episcopal-sympathizing universities at Aberdeen and St Andrews, and who broadly subscribed to the beliefs of their moderate Anglican English counterparts.Today, latitudinarianism should not be confused with ecumenical movements, which seek to draw all Christian churches together, rather than seeking to de-emphasize practical doctrine. The term latitudinarian has taken on a more general meaning, indicating a personal philosophy that includes tolerance of other views, particularly, but not necessarily, on religious matters.
    In the Roman Catholic Church, latitudinarianism was condemned in the 19th-century document Quanta cura. Pope Pius IX felt that, with its emphasis on religious liberty and the freedom to discard traditional Christian doctrines and dogmas, latitudinarianism threatened to undermine the church.

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 6 of latitudinarian.


  • A latitudinarian is a person or a philosophical position that advocates for broad-mindedness, open-mindedness, or a liberal interpretation in matters of religion, especially in relation to theological doctrines and religious behavior. This term is often applied to individuals who are tolerant of deviations from orthodox religious beliefs or standard practices, emphasizing moral conduct over rigid adherences to a specific religious doctrine.

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 7 of latitudinarian.


  • indifferent to a strict application of any standard of belief or opinion; hence, deviating more or less widely from such standard; lax in doctrine; as, latitudinarian divines; latitudinarian theology

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 8 of latitudinarian.


  • one who is moderate in his notions, or not restrained by precise settled limits in opinion; one who indulges freedom in thinking

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 9 of latitudinarian.


  • a member of the Church of England, in the time of Charles II., who adopted more liberal notions in respect to the authority, government, and doctrines of the church than generally prevailed

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 10 of latitudinarian.


  • lax in moral or religious principles

    latitudinarian meaning & definition 11 of latitudinarian.

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