Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or pertaining to syncretism; characterized by syncretism; uniting, or attempting to unite, different systems, as of philosophy or religion. See
syncretism . - noun A syncretist.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Uniting and blending together different systems, as of philosophy, morals, or religion.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Combining disparate elements in one system, especially as in forms of religious observance, philosophical systems, or artistic creations.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective relating to a historical tendency for a language to reduce its use of inflections
- adjective of or characterized by syncretism
Etymologies
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Examples
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And while the system of grace known as syncretic has endeavoured to harmonize the principles of Thomism and Molinism, it has served but to double the difficulties instead of eliminating them.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 14: Simony-Tournon 1840-1916 1913
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Comte may be described as a syncretic, who, like the Gnostics of early Church history, attempted to combine the substance of imperfectly comprehended contemporary science with the form of Roman Christianity.
Collected Essays, Volume V Science and Christian Tradition: Essays Thomas Henry Huxley 1860
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Her work might also be described as "syncretic," although its spiritualism is somewhat submerged, since religion was not a hot topic in postmodernism.
NYT > Home Page By MARTHA SCHWENDENER 2011
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Custer has written what might be called a syncretic pop-culture myth, with a knowing eye for the different Biblical Nativity accounts read Matthew and Luke sometime.
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The score is also unified by using a minimalist technique, resulting in what Martynov calls syncretic minimalism.
unknown title 2009
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SANNEH: Yes and there was something kind of syncretic about the way he worked, about the way he pulled bits and pieces of threads from different things and it sometimes -- sometimes made him seem like someone who was still in the process of creating himself.
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True, that Christianity is “bastardized”; the term of art is syncretic, that is, it has accreted, accumulated bits and pieces of other religions as it has spread through different cultures and around the world; it’s also changed as its practioners have introduced new, and not necessarily improved, ideas.
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Rigorous believers may have a tendency to find "syncretic" what is inculturated from their own traditions.
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Mexico, like the U.S. and Canada, have always been syncretic cultures ...
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Mexico, like the U.S. and Canada, have always been syncretic cultures ...
ecrivaine33 commented on the word syncretic
syncretic \sin-KRET-ik; sing-\, adjective:
Uniting and blending together different systems, as of philosophy, morals, or religion.
December 15, 2006
chained_bear commented on the word syncretic
"Theologically, the larger 'syncretic,' or hybrid, religions—Vodou, Candomblé, and Santeria—are defined by the use of the Catholic saints as a cover for a pantheon of African-derived deities. But it is the collective practice of these religions that concerns us, and this was, and remains, Dionysian, if we understand that word in the most ancient religious sense. These are ecstatic, danced religions, in which music and the muscular synchrony of dance are employed to induce a state of trance interpreted as possession by, or transcendent unity with, a god."
—Barbara Ehrenreich, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006), 169
March 16, 2009